Epoch of Ephemeral Incandescence II (Touhou Fan Fiction)
by TheOVJM
Summary: What I chose? I chose to be in control. And so I set the stage and put the pawns onto the board. Everyone, they're all eager to make the first move not knowing that I'll be the one making the moves. The music starts and I'll make them dance. The music stops and I'll cut them down. Although it is lonely to play this game without an opponent. What do you think, old friend?


**Epoch of Ephemeral Incandescence II**

Word about Marisa's condition spread rapidly. Soon enough the Scarlet Devil Mansion was swarming with people who wanted to see what had happened. Most of them were turned back at the gates but some got through with Remilia's approval or because of Patchouli's request. One of these was Eirin, the lunarian sage who was living in Eientei in the middle of the Bamboo Forest of the Lost. She had been asked to come and take a look at Marisa by Patchouli herself after she had gotten nowhere with herself.

Eirin had a long silver hair tied to a one huge braid to her back. Her clothing was red and blue and covered in constellation patterns. She also had a hat resembling a nurse's cap and trigrams lining the bottom of the hem of her dress. Because she was a lunarian she was known to be really intelligent when it came to literally anything but her speciality happened to be madicines and everything related to health which has kinda earned her the title of the doctor of Gensokyo. But even then not everyone really trusted her since having also a title 'the brain of moon' kinda made most people suspcious around her.

But despite that she was still invited to Scarlet Devil Mansion to see if she could figure out what was wrong with Marisa. Marisa had been moved to a hall that had a fireplace so they could keep her warm. Eirin had asked for everyone else to leave them while she was examining Marisa so they waited in a room next to the hall where Marisa and Eirin were. Reimu and the rest had arrived to the Scarlet Devil mansion as well as soon as they had been informad about why Marisa hadn't arrived to the shrine. Well all except Youmu. She had turned down the invitation to the mansion. It seemed that she really wasn't going to cooperate with the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

Alice too had arrived to the mansion and was currently waiting for the results from Eirin with the rest of them. No one knew that Marisa and Alice had confronted eachother yesterday or that Marisa had had a first hand experience on that entity that had recently appeared in Gensokyo. They all just waited there for Eirin to return and finally she did. Eirin opened the door to the room and signed them to come in. They all followed her to the room where Marisa was and sat down around a table where Eirin signed them to sit.

"So... have you found anything," Reimu finally broke the silnece by asking.

"As much as I hate to admit it, no, I didn't. Even I haven't seen this kind of... well, organ failure, ever," Eirin admitted while they all looked at Marisa who was just laying on a matress, covered in blankets in front of a fire place. They could tell that she was consciouss from the slight movements and sounds she made every now and then.

"But how come she is still living even if her body is... well basically dead. I mean, I've never heard any human surviving without their heart functioning," Meiling asked with confused look on her face. It was then when they saw Remilia joining them by forming on top of the table from a cloud of bats that flew inside the room from an open door.

Remilia was the mistress of the Scarlet Devil Mansion and within that mansion her word was the absolute law. Remilia had a shoulderlength light blue hair with a white mob cap that had a red ribbon on top of her head. She was wearing a white dress with a red ribbon on both sleeves, a large red ribbon behind her waist and a neclace with red fabric and a Caduceus-like center piece. On her back she had a pair of black, large bat-like wings and in her mouth sharp fangs which gave away her vampiric nature quite quickly. But even if she was the mistress of the mansion her form was still really child like. If someone were to guess, her age would be around nine to fourteen years old. Aging body isn't one of the vampires' perks you see. If one knew Remilia well enough they would know that she liked to make a scene and boast for she had a large ego but if someone didn't know Remilia well enough they could even think that such a ridiculous way of arriving to the scene was a norm for a vampire.

"Mind if I give my own opinion on this whole thing?" Remilia asked and bowed before hopping off the table. Reimu just rolled her eyes after Remilia had appeared.

"Please do. It wont hurt after all," Alice said while leaning against the table with her elbows.

"Please, mistress, allow me to say something first," Sakuya said before Remilia could even open her mouth again. Remilia just nodded with annoyed look on her face.

"How come so many already know about Marisa's state? We did not exactly spread the word about this. We only told to Eirin and that was it," Sakuya uttered with concerned look on her face.

"Oh my, I think I was caught," They could hear being said from above them. After that a familiar person fell onto the table with the same annoying grin as always. It was Aya, the tengu reporter from the Youkai Mountain.

Aya had a black semi-long black hair. She was wearing a white blouse, a black short skirt and a tokin. Aya was a famous person all across Gensokyo and one would be stupid to trust her with information, let alone any secrets, since to addition to her incredible physical speed she was also quick to spread any and all information she could get her hands onto.

"Aya, what are you doing here?" Reimu exclaimed as she watched how Aya stood up and bowed.

"I happened to hear your conversation with Eirin when you visited Eientei to get her to come with you, miss Sakuya," Aya said with proud look on her face.

"You followed and eavesdropped on us?" Sakuya said with pissed tone and look on her face.

"That's the fancy way to say it. But you do understand that this kind of a scoop has to be spread quickly before someone else can get their hands onto the information? I couldn't just sit idly by and watch how the scoop of a lifetime slips past my fingers," Aya said and hopped off the table.

"So you just had to spread the word around? And here I was hoping not to make a scene about all of this. We're having enough problems already. Great, just great...," Reimu bridled while glaring at Aya.

"If you're referring to the incident in the human village I can assure you that us Tengu are as concerned about it as you humans are. In the end our existence is dependant on you, as I'm sure you already know," Aya said with a bit more serious look on her face.

"But how is Marisa's case suddenly more interesting than the missing children," Reimu asked with still pissed look on her face.

"Ah, but it's not only about Marisa. I'm collecting information about all the strange things happening and forming a full report about it all once it is complete. But the problem is that the strange occurences just keep happening without apparent stop," Aya said while rubbing her chin.

"Can I say what I was about to say in the first place?" Remilia then suddenly yelled with her arms akimbo. She was apparently tired of waiting. Everyone just turned towards her and looked at her silently.

"Thank you. So, as I was about to say. I don't think Marisa's condition is linked to any medical subject or whatever you wanna call it," Remilia said while looking specifically at Eirin.

"What are you implying?" Alice asked with doubtful look on her face while looking at Remilia.

"Patience. As many of you might very well know as a vampire I can be blown to bits, grinded to dust, burned on a cross or just whacked into mush but I will keep coming back. But then again stabbing me with a silver weapon or piercing my heart with a wooden stake will end me for good. It is not that I coudn't take the hit physically but more about the spiritual power those methods have," Remilia explained while staring at everyone sitting around the table.

"Any doctor would consider it impossible to survive something I can survive but also unlikely to die because of something I will be killed by. So because of that I can only assume Marisa's condition has no relation to her physical state but rather her spiritual state," Remilia kept explaining after she had started to walk back and forth.

"That's.. actually quite impressive Remi. How did you come up with this on your own?" Patchouli asked with amazed look on her face.

"Because I cannot read her fate for bloody fuck's sake," Remilia suddenly yelled in frustration.

"Mind your language, mistress," Sakuya simply uttered from her own seat.

"What do you mean by that?" Alice then asked while glaring at Aya who seemed to be busy writing down notes.

"I'm used to being able to... well... kinda sense what other people have been doing. It just kinda snaps into my head when I look at everyone around me. That's kinda like a side effect from my fate controlling ability. Though I cannot control it even a single bit, even if I wanted to. But any how. For an example I know that you, Reimu, haven't eaten breakfast today, Alice has written a letter and Meiling hasn't slept as much as she would have wanted to," Remilia said with frustrated look on her face.

"I can see these little things from people's lives but when I look at Marisa there's nothing. It's almost as if she doesn't even have a fate of her own... or that she has reached her fate already. Usually this happens when I kill someone or look at a corpse. They don't have any fate because they aren't alive. Marisa is very much alive even though her body is failing to prove that," Remilia said and sat down to the floor to sulk. Everyone just looked at her with confused looks on their faces waiting for her to continue.

"The same also goes for Sanae... Though with her it is the opposite. When I laid my eyes onto her I saw that she had slept, eaten, brushed her hair and swept the road to the shrine clean from leaves, all at the same time... Speaking of which where is she?" Remilia then uttered and looked at the table. It was then when she realized that Sanae hadn't been with them during the whole time. They all then just stood up and looked around themselves but Sanae was nowhere to be found.

"She came here with us. Did anyone notice when she separated from us?" Reimu asked and looked around herself with suspicious look on her face. Everyone just looked at each other but no one said that they would have seen Sanae leaving.

"Okay, let's spread up and find her. We don't want any more incidents," Reimu said and stood up. The other's followed her lead.

"This is why I do not like too many people visiting the mansion all at once," Sakuya muttered as she looked how Reimu walked to a door leading away from the room they were in.

"If you don't mind, I'd very much like to stay here and monitor Marisa's situation," Eirin said while watching how others started to spread up to search for Sanae.

"I'd prefer if you didn't... hmmm, on a second thought you can, Meiling, could you please stay here with Eirin," Patchouli said and looked at Meiling. Meiling then just saluted and said, "You can count on me," Patchouli then just nodded and followed others out from the room.

While all this had been going on Marisa had been fully consciouss and just listening to what others were saying.

"Damn it. What is wrong with me? Come on, it isn't so hard, just move my arms and push myself up... Ugh, I need to tell them what Suwako had said to me earlier, that Sanae had been acting weirdly. This might be connected to that but... COME ON WORK ALREADY," Marisa thought to herself in frustration. She wanted to just sit up and tell the others what she knew but even opening her own mouth was hard let alone speaking properly. She could let out some moans but nothing comprehensable.

"And Alice... she had the audacity to just come here and act worried and all. And now when she's here even if I could speak and bust Alice she would probably just let out some lie. She wouldn't come here unprepared. Or maybe she has already moved the kids somewhere else," Marisa thought while laying on the matress. While thinking all of this she happened to hear Eirin walking next to her.

"So... what do you make of all of this?" Meiling asked and looked at Eirin who looked at Marisa with curious look on her face.

"You know Meiling, when I told I haven't seen anything like this before, I lied," Eirin said while watching Marisa.

"Huh? Why?" Meiling asked with confused and surprised tone and look on her face.

"Long ago... no, really long time ago I witnessed something almost identical. I couldn't say it out loud while the other were here because they would have expected me to know how to fix this, but the truth is that I don't know," Eirin said with empty look in her eyes.

"So what is happening to her?" Meiling asked and tilted her head.

"I don't undertsand it wholly but some external force is forcing her body to fail. And I'm afraid that even if she is still technically alive this condition is life threatening. I know there's a way to 'cure' her but I'm not sure if I understand what it is," Eirin said with toughtful look on her face.

"Yeah, thanks for saying it straight to my face," Marisa thought to herself. She really didn't like that Eirin was straight up saying that she could literally die while laying there.

"You can try to explain it as well as you can," Meiling said. She looked as clueless as she actually was but she still wanted to hear what Eirin had to say about Marisa.

"Okay, I will try my best to explain it. While we don't know what kind of force is doing this to Marisa I still do know that you can escape it's influence by changing yourself... some way. It sounds crazy but when I witnessed this happen long time ago the person to which this was happening could escape it by somehow changing themselves completely... I mean they were the same person but also... not. But I was told that if that change does not happen then the result would be death," Eirin explained but it was clear that she was as clueless as Meiling.

"So we have to do something for Marisa?" Meiling asked to confirm what Eirin had just said.

"I have no clue. The person who I met had their own way of overcoming this problem but I have no idea if we even can save Marisa," Eirin said to Meiling.

"I see... This however has to be brought to others' attention. They might figure out a way to save her," Meiling said and shrugged her shoulders.

"We can only hope," Eirin said and stood up.

"By the way, who was that person you talked about?" Meiling then asked with curious look on her face.

"I wish I knew," Eirin said and sighed deeply. Meiling just looked at her and lifted her eyebrow in confusion but she couldn't ask for any further details when they were snapped out from their conversation by something that felt like an earthquake.

"Oh come on, what now," Meiling yelped as she tried to keep a vase from falling to the floor from on top of a drawer.

"What ever this is, it is not an earthquake," Eirin said while leaning against the fire place.

"What do you mean?" Meiling yelled over the tremors.

"I've had my fair share of earthquakes during my time on earth and I can pretty safely say that this is too irregular to be an earthquake," Eirin responded while looking at the floor ender them.

"Oh shit, I may know where this is coming from. Come," Meiling said and rushed out from the door. Eirin followed her even though she didn't know where Meiling was taking her.

Meanwhile Sakuya, Reimu and the others were looking for Sanae. Patchouli and Alice were looking from the library, Remilia was looking through the northern wing or more like was keeping her eye on Aya and Sakuya and Reimu were searching the western wing. Reimu and Sakuya were currently on Sanae's trail since they were following opened doors. They had no idea why Sanae was there in the first place but that really didn't matter to them.

"So... what do you make of all of this? What is happening around Gensokyo right now?" Sakuya broke the silnece by asking Reimu.

"Honestly, I don't know. I'm getting a strong feel that we have to get help from Yukari sooner or later. If I may say, it seems like the situation is getting out of hand," Reimu said while they walked through yet another opened door.

"That was an undertsatement," Sakuya muttered.

"I swear if we don't start getting answer soon I'll lose my mind," Reimu continued while looking around herself to find any traces of Sanae. They were currently walking through a corridor that had a many rooms on its side. They were also pretty close to Remilia's bedroom which made Sakuya pretty serious. When they were about to reach the end of the corridor Sakuya stopped suddenly and just looked at one of the doors. It was open.

"She's gone through there," Reimu said while looking at the slightly open door.

"More importantly, that is the door to my room," Sakuya muttered and walked closer. She just sidled closer and closer to the door till she was close enough to peek through it. She opened the door a bit more and took a look inside. When she saw what was happening inside she wasn't going to believe her eyes. Sanae had rummaged through her cabinet and was currently holding something in her hands.

"Hey," Sakuya yelled with offended look on her face. Reimu could clearly see that she was furious. Sakuya hadn't said what she had seen inside but from her reaction Reimu could tell that Sanae was still in there. Reimu followed Sakuya inside the room after she had slammed the door open and she was right, Sanae was still inside but she could immediately say that something wasn't right. Sanae didn't seem to react to their presence in any way. She just kept something in her hands. She just looked how Sakuya walked up to Sanae and grabbed her shoulder.

"What do you think you are doing here!?" Sakuya yelled at her but there was no responce. Sakuya then grapped Sanae's arm to see what she was holding.

"What did you take!?" Sakuya kept yelling and pulled Sanae's arm so that she could see what she had but what she saw was something she didn't expect. It was a gun and it was loaded. Sakuya's eyes widened as she stared at the gun and then at Sanae. Sanae's finger was on the trigger so Sakuya couldn't take any risks.

"Sanae, put that thing away," Sakuya said and backed away a one step but Sanae didn't react in any way. She just stared at Sakuya and Reimu with blank look on her face.

"Sanae, are you okay," Reimu then asked and took a step towards her but Sakuya stopped her by signing to her to stay put. Sakuya then walked around Sanae so that she wouldn't point the gun straight at her, took few careful staps towards her and then gently grabbed the arm where Sanae was holding the weapon. She then carefully pushed it down so that Sanae wasn't pointing at anything or anyone and once it was finally safe she took the gun from Sanae's hand. Sakuya immediately inspected the weapon. She took the magazine out and pulled the slide back once so that the bullet in the chamber would fall out.

"How did she find this...," Sakuya muttered out loud while looking at the gun in her hands. She then put the gun away and looked at Sanae. It seemed that she was still completely oblivious to this world.

"Reimu, take her out. I will put everything back to their places," Sakuya said and started looking through the stuff Sanae had pulled out from her cabinet. Reimu just nodded and grabbed Sanae from her hand. She then pulled her out from Sakuya's room and strangely enough she didn't resist at all. In fact as soon as she had pulled Sanae out from Sakuya's room and shut the door behind themselves Sanae suddenly started looking around herself like she had come back to her senses. She then looked at Reimu and asked, "So how's Marisa?" Reimu just looked at Sanae for a moment. It was like this was a normal situation for her.

"W-what were you doing in Sakuya's room?" Reimu then asked with confused look on her face. Sanae just stared at her however she didn't respond. Just looked. After that Sakuya stepped out from her room. Reimu then quickly turned towards her.

"She doesn't seem to even know what she was doing. She snapped to her senses but as soon as I asked her about what she was doing she just stopped and stared at me silently," Reimu whispered to Sakuya's ear. Sakuya then just looked at Sanae who was looking back at her with a bit confused look on her face and then tilted her head.

"Let's keep our eye on her. Something is not right about her. Also, do not mention anything about this to her again. She does not seem to have been in control of her actions during that," Sakuya whispered back at Reimu who nodded slightly. Reimu then stepped away from Sakuya and looked at Sanae.

"Come on, shouldn't we get back to Marisa. Come to think of it, what business did the two of you have in Sakuya's room anyway?" Sanae asked and tilted her head. Reimu and Sakuya just looked at each other but before they could look back at Sanae they felt sudden tremors coming from underneath themselves.

"What is this!?" Reimu then yelled and tried to grab something to keep herself from falling. Then the tremors stopped but after that a second wave came, this time a lot stronger.

"It is coming straight beneath us... Reimu, Sanae, follow me, I think know where this is coming. We cannot afford to let this continue," Sakuya yelled while they tried to keep themselves from falling to the floor. Sakuya then started running and signed Sanae and Reimu to follow her. Sanae and Reimu just looked at each other, nodded and ran after Sakuya.

Back at the hall with a fireplace Marisa was still laying on the mattress. What Eirin had said earlier hadn't made her feel any better.

"What did she mean with 'changing'? Did she mean...? No, she couldn't have. I'm the only one who knows that this is not my original body and even if I wanted I couldn't switch bodies ever again. Change, change... what the heck could that mean," Marisa thought to herself. The tremors had not stopped but Marisa really couldn't do anything about that. She could just lay there and think about how she could escape the situation she was in. But suddenly the tremors hit harder than they had before which made Marisa to suddenly fall off from the mattress and since she didn't have the strength to prevent it she soon found herself from the cold floor.

"Ughh...," Marisa muttered as she pushed herself up from the floor but it was then when her eyes bursted wide open.

"Wait... I can push myself up," Marisa thought to herself as she sat up on the floor. She looked at her hands. She could move them around like she normally could. She the tried to move her legs. They too moved like they should. She then stood up carefully to see if she truly had recovered the full control over her body but once she realized that she could stand up and walk around without any problem she started to laugh from relief.

"Ha... ha-ha-hahahaha," Marisa laughed and sighed deeply but then she realized that she should still do one thing. She then touched her chest, stood there silently and just kept her hand on top of her left breast for a while. Still no heart beat.

"I guess I'm not on the clear yet," Marisa thought to herself and then looked around herself. The tremors had stopped after she had fallen to the floor and now that she thought about it it had become oddly quiet. And now after looking around herself she could tell that not everything was right. The colors around her seemed somewhat bleached and greyish. Also the fire had been extinguished from the fire place.

"Well better to take a look around now when I finally can," Marisa muttered to herself and walked to the door and opened it. The door took her to a corridor which too was as bleached looking as the hall she had been in.

"Hmm, where did everybody go. They were going to search for Sanae but I haven't heard anything about them after the tremors. Eirin and Mieling couldn't have gotten this far this quick," Marisa thought to herself and scratched her hair while walking along the corridor. She kept walking till she reached the end of the corridor. She looked left and right and found that it continued to the both direction. She then just shrugged her shoulders and turned to left.

"Hey, where are you!? I can move around without problems again," Marisa yelled while walking forward but there was no response.

"Odd, they should hear me. It is so quiet that my yelling should be heard from quite far away," Marisa muttered as she kept walking past innumerable amount of doors that she believed to lead to the rooms of those fairy maids and speaking of which she hadn't seen any of them. In fact it was starting to creep her out. The Scarlet Devil Mansion had so many fairies that it was almost impossible to not to run into one but now they were all but gone. Marisa then reached the end of this corridor which then turned right. Marisa looked to the direction of the turning corridor and assumed that she was now walking along the outer wall since the left side of the corridor had quite many windows covered with iron.

"Might as well take a look outside to see if there's something going on over there," Marisa thought and walked up to the first window and pushed the iron cover open to see if there was anything going on on the outside of the mansion. Once the iron cover was pushed away and she had taken a look outside she was met with a strange sight. Mist was covering the whole area around the mansion. She couldn't see even the wall going around the mansion, the mist was just too thick. Marisa looked at the sight for a moment.

"Even the colors of the garden are bleached... What is going on?" Marisa muttered as she pulled away from the window and shut it again. She then turned towards the way the corridor was supposed to continue and it was then when she saw it. That dark entity was standing about twenty meters away from her and clearly staring at her. The entity also didn't just fade away like it normally did, now it seemed that it was as real as Marisa herself. Marisa gulped and took few steps backwards but the entity followed as many steps as Marisa took. Marisa could clearly see that the entity had now more clear humanoid form. It was completely black and mist-like but she could see two arms and legs. The entity also seemed quite small. Smaller than Marisa remembered. She gulped.

"Y-you here for me again? Gotten enough power to sustain yourself without the flashes?" Marisa asked out loud. The entity didn't react and instead just moved to the window next to it and pulled it open. Marisa just looked what it was doing. After the window had been opened the entity turned towards marisa again and then a sudden lightning struck on the outside. It was then when Marisa realized what was happening. During the flash the world around her regained its colors but just for a moment and she could see the fairy maids all around the corridor.

"Oh no...," Marisa muttered as the colors and the fairy maids faded awya with the flash. She then looked at the entity again. First it took a step towards her, then another, then third and after that it started to almost run towards her.

"I know when I'm not wanted," Marisa yelped, turned around and started running away from the entity. She couldn't hear any footsteps following her nor any other sounds other than her own but when looking behind herself she could see the entity following her.

"Okay, okay... This is not the Scarlet Devil Mansion any more, or at least not the one I was in couple dozen minutes ago. Somehow I'm stuck in this... whatever this is with that thing," Marisa thought to herself as she ran away from her chaser aimlesly. She wasn't sure to which direction she was running but she really didn't care. First Marisa ran straigth, then turned left, then rigth and then left again. She ran down stairs, found a hall and continued through it to another corridor while the entity stayed hot on her trail. It didn't seem like it was about to lose her any time soon and every time Marisa thought she had lost it, it reappeared through a door on the side of one of the corridors or sometimes literally through walls. But for Marisa all of the walls were as solid as everything else, meaning that she had no way of getting through them.

"This is a bit unfair, ya'know," Marisa yelled to her chaser as if it could hear her. Well it probably could but catching her seemed to be its main priority because it didn't react to Marisa's shouts in any way. Marisa continued running, constantly descending a bit lower and lower until she finally happened to come across the massive library she was first brought into when carried into the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Marisa quickly ran to the center of the library and then between two bookshelves. She then stopped for a moment and looked behind herself only to find that she was alone now. She didn't saw nor hear any signs of her chaser anywhere but this didn't calm her down. She then sidled to the end of the bookshelf and peeked at the center of the library. There it was, the entity. It seemed like she had finally lost it because it was standing there constantly turning to random directions like looking for her.

"Okay, I'm in an advantage for a change. What are my options? I can either fight, or try to run away," Marisa thought to herself after backing away a little so that she couldn't be seen so easily. First she considered running away but after remembering how easily the entity had stayed on her trail she decided to stay. She the looked at her hands. She tried to summon a simple spell but without succes. She tried again with another spell but even that didn't work. It seemed like she couldn't use her magic at all.

"Damn it," Marisa whispered to herself and leaned against the bookshelf with frustrated look on her face. Then she looked at the bookshelf and got an idea. The grimoires in this library were almost all magical and most of them had spells that anyone could use even if they didn't have any powers themselves. The only requirement was to know how to use them and Marisa knew exactly what she would need to do. She then quickly skimmed through the bookshelf taking all the grimoires that had combat spells in them and took the few most powerful ones. She searched few spells from them and then took a deep breath. She peeked out again, the entity was still there looking for her.

"Here goes nothing," Marisa thought to herself and stepped out from between the bookshelves with the grimoires.

"Hey, asswipe! Take this," Marisa yelled, pointed one of her grimoires at the entity and shot a group of fireballs at it. The entity just turned towards Marisa just before the fireballs hit it and when they did the entity just scattered to the air like mist.

"Hah! Not so though after all," Marisa yelled with flamboyant tone and look on her face while holding the grimoire in her right hand and squeezing her left hand into a fist victoriously. But her victory was short lived when the entity formed together again and charged at her.

"Oh crap," Marisa yelped and dove away from the attack that the entity threw at her. Marisa then stood up and pulled the second grimoire out. She then started firing projectiles from both books in her hands. As the projectiles hit the entity it once again just scattered into the air but one thing Marisa noticed was that the projectiles that didn't hit the entity didn't deal any damage to their surroundings.

"Well at least I wont be charged for damaging the library," Marisa thought to herself as she watched how the entity formed together again once again charging towards Marisa. She once again just rolled out of the way and blasted the entity forcing it to lose its form once again.

"Seems like you have to get close and personal with me to be able to do anything. You don't seem to have any projectiles at your disposal," Marisa muttered as she took a little more distance to the once again regenerating figure. Marisa prepared for it attacking her for the fourth time but was surprised when the entity didn't attack her once it regained its form and instead just stood there. It seemed like that even it had realized the stalemate they were in. Marisa didn't dare to put the books down. She just watched the entity and waited for it to make its move.

"Come on now, we wont get anywhere if you just stand there gawking," Marisa uttered while staring at the figure but it didn't react it any way.

"By the way, why are you after me? I haven't done anything to you or at least I don't remember that I would have," Marisa continued but it was then when the entity let out a sound that sounded something between wind and hissing.

"Okay, a sensitive topic," Marisa said and gulped. It was the first time when the entity had actually interracted with her in any way other than trying to attack her. Marisa was about to open her mouth to speak again but before she could utter even a single word the tremors started again. The shaking floor made her to lurch and then fall. The tremors made few books fall down from the bookshelfs and from the middle of the bookrain Marisa managed to see the entity dissolving into the air. Before one a bit heavier book dropping from the shelf knocked her out.

After the first tremors started it took Meiling and Eirin about a minute till they reached the place where Meiling believed the tremors were coming from, the basement. Currently they were standing in a big hall that had huge marble pillars on its both sides and at the far end of the hall was a big ominous stone door with red glowing runes on it. To be fair the door looked like it had been ripped from the hell itself. It had the cerain 'turn back and run' feeling to it. And now when they just stood there and looked at the door they could feel the tremors being stronger than anywhere else.

"So the tremors are coming from there... damn," Meiling uttered with a bit stressed look on her face.

"What is behind that door? Is it causing these quakes?" Eirin asked while leaning against one of the marble pillars.

"I really wouldn't want to get into that but I suppose that you'll see for yourself if the situation requires it," Meiling said, gulped and took few careful steps towards the door. It was then when Remilia, Aya, Patchouli, Alice, Sakuya, Reimu and Sanae came running down to the same hall that Meiling and Eirin were currently in. They had apparently met while running down.

"So you found Sanae," Meiling said after turning around and seeing them running to them. Sanae just looked at her with confused look on her face and tilted her head.

"Long story. Better if we don't go into that right now," Reimu said while looking at the door in front of her.

"Could it be that this is _her_ doing?" Reimu continued and then looked at the others. Patchouli just shrugged her shoulders and shook her head to indicate that she didn't know.

"Okay, let's get it open and see what is going on," Patchouli said and stepped one step towards the door but Remilia jumped between her and the door.

"No, I have forbidden you from opening that door under any and all circumstances," Remilia said with serious look on her face. Patchouli just looked at her for a moment but before she could say anything the tremors stopped. It became really quiet all of a sudden.

"What is happening?" Alice asked but Patchouli just shushed her. They all stood there and listened for a while until they heard a clank from behind the door and then a sound of something exploding. After that they started to feel how the hall shook a little every time something could be heard from behind the door but nothing nearly as powerful as the tremors just recently.

"Remi, I'm sorry but we need to know what is happening," Patchouli said and walked past Remilia who seemed like she was about to protest but stopped before she did anything. They all just watched how Patchouli walked up to the door, touched and then whispered something. The sound continued on the other side of the door until the door moved a little. The door budged just a little bit at first and after that the sounds stopped immediately. Then the door started opening revealing a dark space behind it. Once the door had opened enough and Patchouli had stepped out of the way, two figures could be seen charging out from the room.

"What the...!?" Sakuya uttered as the two figures ran out and once they had gotten past the doors both of them just fell to the floor. The other figure was dressed in red and white while the other was...

"Marisa!?" Reimu exclaimed in confusion and surprise after realizing that the other figure was Marisa. She was just about to run to her but Marisa stood up from the floor quickly after hearing Reimu's voice and backed away a little bit. Reimu didn't manage to take a better look at her when she stopped after she layed her eyes onto the other figure, dressed in red and white, who was slowly gathering itself from the floor.

"Miss Flandre," Meiling uttered while staring at the other figure that had charged out from the room and was currently gathering itself from the floor.

Flandre, as she was called, was Remilia's little sister and the second vampire living in the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Flandre had a shoulder length blonde hair that was tied to a single ponytail to the left side of her head. She was wearing a red skirt and vest with a white shirt underneath. She also had a white mob cap with a red ribbon tied to it on top of her head. On her back there were two wings made of steel rods that had eight crystals hanging from both of them: light blue, blue, purple, pink, orange, yellow, light green and a lastly another light blue. Those who knew about her existance knew that Flandre was the greatest secret of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. That's because of her almost unmatched destructive strength. Also if one were to say that she was insane, it would be an understatement. But no one really knew why she had so unstable mind.

Flandre stood up from the ground and looked around herself while holding her head. She didn't utter a word nor did she do anything. She just stood there and watched.

"Young mistress, what on earth is going on... over... here?" Sakuya asked and took few steps closer to Flandre but it was then when she saw something she wasn't expecting. There, at the doorway to that dark room stood another Flandre. Sakuya just stared at the both of them silently and then took a step backwards.

"Could everyone just take a few steps back," Patchouli said with careful tone and a bit stressed look on her face while straing at the both Flandres in front of them.

"She can clone herself right? Isn't that just one of her clones?" Reimu asked carefully and pointed at the second Flandre standing on the doorway looking at them.

"Don't be naive, you can feel the same aura coming from the both of them. Her clones don't emit that same aura," Patchouli responded and backed away herself too. They then looked how the Flandre standing between them and the second Flandre reached into her pocket and took out a stop watch, identical to the one Sakuya had. She looked at it for a moment, then at the others standing in front of her and then behind herself where there was another Flandre.

"I shouldn't be here," Flandre simply uttered after looking back at the watch.

"Wait, where did Marisa go?" Sanae suddenly asked. She was right. After she had backed away back to the room no one had seen her come out. After Sanae had asked that Flandre in front of them suddenly winced, turned around and was just about to run back into the room when the tremors started again. Flandre fell to the ground before she could reach the room. The rest of them just tried to get hold onto something to keep themselves up. The tremors continued for several dozen seconds until they finally stopped. Flandre then stood up again now when she finally could and run to the doorway beside the other Flandre and just looked at the dark room in front of her. She then just turned around silently with confused look on her face and just looked at the others who were recovering from the tremors.

"Wh-why are there two of them?" Eirin groaned after getting herself up again. The Flandres on the doorway then just looked at each other and after that the Flandre with the watch looked back them with as confused look on her face as on their. Then the other Flandre who had been standing on the doorway this whole time took a few careful steps towards them with curious look on her face.

"Has big sis' finally come to play with me?" Flandre asked with almost enthused look on her face. Remilia just backed away a few steps.

"No, I don't think she did," The Flandre with the watch uttered while scratching her hair with a bit awkward look on her face.

"This... may be a little hard to explain...," Flandre uttered to herself. She then put the watch back into her pocket, walked past the other Flandre towards the others staring at her. They all winced a little when she approached them.

"Oh yeah, you think I'm insane... well you're right to think that, but... uhh... Could you at least tell me what year, month, day and time of day it is? Oh, and where's Marisa? I need to find her," Flandre said while scratching her hair. Reimu and the rest just looked at each other in confusion. She then just pointed at the room and asked, "I don't know but didn't she go there before the second tremor?"

"Well that's what I thought too but she wasn't there when I looked," Flandre responded and just shrugged her shoulders.

"Uhmmm, shouldn't we check on Marisa? She should be upstairs in the hall but she was here just now but now she's gone again...?" Aya asked carefully with confused look on her face. Everyone then just looked at Aya and rushed up the stairs. Flandre just looked after them in confusion.

"I don't know what is going on but I have a bad feeling that something went wrong... I shouldn't be here during this time... what ever it may be," Flandre uttered and looked the other Flandre behind her who was just looking at her head tilted a little. She then just looked after Reimu and the others and decided to follow them just in case. The other Flandre stayed behind and just watched with curious look on her face.

It didn't take them long to reach the hall in which Marisa had been and as soon as they entered it they saw that Marisa was gone.

"Where has she gone off to? Could she have been down there with us between the tremors?" Reimu asked out loud while inspecting the mattress and the blanket.

"No, she couldn't have. First, of all her condition shouldn't allow her to move around and second, even if she could move around she could never get to the young mistress' room," Patchouli responded with serious look on her face.

"Then explain to me where she is," Reimu retorted with annoyed tone and look on her face. After that couple of fairy maids came into the room with them. They flew straight to Sakuya and whispered something to her. Sakuya then just nodded and looked at the others.

"Marisa has been found. She's in the library," Sakuya said and signed everyone to follow her. Flandre was still tailing the group. She didn't dare to join them for it seemed that they didn't trust her which wasn't too big of a surprise.

"The library... How can she be there all of a sudden?" Alice asked while rubbing her chin.

"I don't know, though nothing surprises me anymore," Patchouli responded casually. She didn't seem to be surprised by the fact that Marisa had suddenly moved to the library, though Alice could understand why. Marisa moving to the library wasn't even nearly the strangest thing for this day. They made their way to the library but during that Sanae started complaining about having a headache. She decided that it would be best if she just went home. Everyone agreed and they sent Sakuya to escort Sanae to the gates.

Once they reached the library the fairy maids showed them where they had found Marisa. The tremors had messed up the library quite well so it was no wonder why so many fairy maids were there currently. They found Marisa from between two bookshelves. She was half buried in books though fairires had already carried most of them away already. Eirin and Patchouli kneeled beside Marisa and examined her quickly.

"She's unconscious. A falling book seems to have knocked her out," Eirin said and sighed for relief.

"Eirin, wouldn't it be high time for you to tell others what you told me? Marisa was at the hall when we left, we saw her in the basement and now she's here. We have to start trusting eachother and share every last bit of information we might have to solve this thing," Meiling said with serious look on her face while looking at Eirin. Eirin just sighed and stood up. She was just about to open her mouth when a familiar voice interrupted her.

"I admit, when I arrived I wasn't expecting things to be like this. Heck, they shouldn't be like this. I don't know what is going on but I can at least shed some light onto one thing; the Marisa we saw at the basement wasn't the same Marisa as this one," Flandre said while watching the situation from on top of a bookshelf with a worried and serious look on her face.

"How do you know?" Reimu asked with doubtuf look on her face and her arms akimbo.

"I'll explain it to you if you promise to trust me," Flandre said with serious tone and look on her face. After that she jumped off from the bookshelf. Everyone just looked at each other and then gave Flandre a careful nod.

"Wait, is the second... well Flandre alone currently? Isn't anybody looking after her and making sure that nothing is damaged?" Meiling suddenly asked. It was apparent that she was worried about what could happen if there now were two Flandres free to do what ever they wanted.

"There's no need to worry. She wont stray away from the basement. Or at least I wouldn't do that. We technically are the same person after all," Flandre said and shrugged her shoulders with a hint of uncertainty on her face.

"But I'd still go and take her away from there. Leaving her... Wait, should I say 'I' or 'her' when speaking about my... well doppelganger? Well, in any case, leaving her there isn't the best course of action one could take," Flandre said with a little awkward look on her face.

They then agreed to return to the same hall where they had originally brought Marisa and discuss the matter further once they had all gathered there. Reimu, Patchouli and Flandre returned to the basement to retrieve the other Flandre while the others returned to the hall together with Marisa. Once they reached the basement it was just like Flandre had told them, the other Flandre was still there, sitting against one of the marble pillars.

"So, what was that sound coming from your room before we opened it? It sounded like fighting to me," Reimu asked once they had reached the bottom layer of the basement.

"Your guess isn't too far from the truth. Once I arrived there I found Marisa and my other self staring at each other. Needles to say that my sudden appearance startled them both. I think that was what ignited my other self to attack me and that other Marisa in the basement," Flandre explained while scratching her hair.

"And how exactly did you manage to get here?" Reimu continued.

"I'll explain once we have gotten her away form the basement," Flandre said and nodded towards the other Flandre leaning against the marble pillar.

"If you two don't mind, I'd like to investigate Flandre's room really quick," Patchouli interrupted Reimu's and Flandre's conversation. They just nodded and watched how Patchouli walked into the room.

"By the way, didn't Marisa face Flandr- I mean her after the red mist incident?" Flandre asked while rubbing her chin.

"Yeah. Why?" Reimu responded and looked at Flandre.

"It is just that I thought she would have gotten out from the basement after that," Flandre continued while looking at her other self.

"She was deemed too dangerous and she was put back into the basement for all I've heard. After that she has never been mentioned again," Reimu responded while looking at Flandre leaning against the pillar. She didn't seem to care that the two spoke of her.

"You two! Come and take a look at this," They suddenly heard Patchouli yelling from the room. Flandre and Reimu just looked at each other and then ran to the room to see what patchouli had found. But once they entered Patchouli didn't even need to tell them what she had found for they could see it very clearly themselves. Bodies, dozens upon dozens of bodies. Most of them were charred beyond recognition and the others had only bones left of them. It seemed like a mass grave of some sort.

"Gods... What the hell happened here?" Reimu asked and squatted down to take a closer look at the bones. The ground near the walls of that room was practically covered in bodies.

"Impossible...," Flandre uttered while looking at the sight before her eyes.

"Didn't you see this while you still were in the room?" Reimu then asked after standing up again.

"No, I didn't. I guess it was too dark and I was focused onto my doppelganger," Flandre uttered and took a few steps deeper into the room.

"Something like this shouldn't happen. No one has entered the room after Marisa fought Flandre over a decade ago and the room didn't have any bodies in it back then," Patchouli muttered while scratching her chin with baffled look on her face.

"Well this is just an a addition to a list. Let's get back up and see what we can make form all of this," Reimu said and backed away from the room.

"Yeah, that may be best," Flandre uttered and followed Reimu together with Patchouli. Flandre was used to seeing bodies but for some reason she dreaded to even look at them. There was something about them that she couldn't understand.

They then left the room and shut the door to it behind themselves. Flandre said that it was just in case. They then went to take the other Flandre with them and to their surprise she didn't resist in any way. She just followed what ever Patchouli told her. They then returned upstairs to the hall where the others were waiting for them. They had put Marisa down to the same matress where she had originally laid. It also seemed that she had regained her consciousness while Reimu, Flandre and Patchouli had been in the basement to get the other Flandre to come with them. Though she didn't show any signs of being able to move around or talk so they still had no idea how she had ended up in the library in the first place. They then put Sakuya in charge of looking after the other Flandre while everyone else sit down around the table, all except Meiling. They had finally gotten enough of Aya's presence and had Meiling to take her away.

Once everything was finally ready Eirin was the first one to speak. First and foremost she told Flandre about Marisa's situation and then everything she had told to Meiling so that everyone would know that she had some kind of hunch about Marisa's condition. After that came Reimu's turn to tell what had happened recently. How there was something out of ordinary happening constantly. Alice was filling in all the details Reimu was unaware of or had forgotten. Though, of course she told them only what she wanted everyone else to know.

Meanwhile Marisa was listening to their conversation on the floor. The appearance of two Flandre's was as big of a surprise to her as it was to everyone else.

"So... If I understood it correctly the time that I spent in that... place, what ever it was where I saw that entity was between those tremors. And this Flandre apparently appeared after the first tremors stopped. Then to my understanding I returned to this world during the last tremors that apparently happened just after the second me disappeared... What the heck is going on?" Marisa thought to herself, unable to speak or move around. The only thing she could do was to just lay there and listen.

Finally it came Flandre's turn to speak. She stood up from her chair so that everyone could see her clearly though she saw that Remilia didn't even look at her when it finally was her turn to tell what she knew.

"Okay I'm gonna put this as simply as I can, I'm am a time traveler," Flandre said with dead serious look on her face. Everyone just looked at her with confused looks on their faces waiting for Flandre to continue.

"Though every single time so far that I have warped through time I have have... well, become myself of that time. To put it simply there have always been only one me when I've warped through time. And I've always appeared where I've wanted to but now something appears to have gone wrong. For starters there are two me's even though me and her should be one and the same person. Plus there has never been that kind of an quake after jumping through time, which has made me to believe that it has something to do with the fact that there are two me's currently. And that's what brings us to Marisa appearing in the basement. After she disappeared there was a second wave of tremors. That can only mean that she too was somehow time traveler. Though where she came from and why are as big mysteries to me as they are to you. By the way, were there more than two waves of tremors in total?" Flandre finished her explanation by asking.

"Now that you mention it it started with the first wave of tremors, then there was a really short gap and then the tremors got stronger. The tremors that happened after that other Marisa in the basement disappeared were technically the third wave of tremors," Patchouli said with thoughtful look on her face.

"That seals it then. The first wave of tremors was caused by Marisa, because she was in the basement already when I arrived. The second wave was caused by my arrival and the third wave was caused my Marisa leaving," Flandre said with serious look on her face.

"And talking about time traveling. How and why are you doing that?" Reimu asked and tilted her head. She seemed fascinated and confused at the same time.

"I'm sorry but I have to keep my means of traveling through time as a secret. A... sensitive matter, you see. As for the why I'm traveling... well... it may sound pretty ironic but what I'm trying to do is to save Marisa. You see in my timeline she was killed. My goal was to save her by traveling through time, although initially I found out about the time traveling via accident. Since then I've tried to travel through time back and forth trying to change her fate, though with no succes so far," Flandre said with much more serious tone and looked at Marisa laying on the matress in front of the fire place.

"Ohohohoo, so my gut feeling was right," They suddenly heard being said from the corner of the room. All of them turned immediately towards the direction where the sound had come from and when they did they saw a familiar figure standing there.

It was Koishi. She had a pale greenish, shoulder length hair with a wide, black hat that had a yellow ribbon on top of her head. Her purple, closed third eye was hanging over her chest and was attached to her body with pruple cords. She was wearing a yellow shirt with diamond-like blue buttons and a dark green collar. Her skirt was also green with faint flowery pattern.

Koishi was a satori, a youkai that could read other's minds but she had closed her third eye resulting her losing this ability. In exchange her mind started acting completely subconsciously and she even gained the ability to control other people's subconsciousness. That also meant that she couldn't be noticed by others if she so wanted.

"How long have you been here?" Patchouli asked with a bit surprised look on her face.

"Long enough to already know all about your little problems you're dealing with. Truly interesting little scenario if I may say so myself," Koishi responded, scampered to the table and hopped on top of it to take a better look at Flandre.

"Why have you come here? I don't recall inviting you," Remilia said with grumpy look on her face with her hands akimbo.

"Ah, I invited myself. You see my presence here is not due to a mere coincidence. I happened to see that weird animal lady at the Former Capital just a little while ago," Koishi said after she had looked at Flandre for a few seconds.

"You mean Kasen?" Reimu asked.

"Yes, that was her name. I saw her visiting Yuugi. I haven't seen that happening in a long while so I decided to take a look at what's happening aboveground for a change. I wondered around and finally sensed something rather interesting from this mansion. It seems that there truly are two Flandres here, just as I sensed," Koishi said with energetic tone.

"Okay, if that's all you came here for then you can leave now," Remilia said while retaining that look on her face.

"Hiiiii," Koishi just uttered with playfull grin on her face.

"What is it?" Reimu asked and tilted her head.

"After listening to you for a while now I can pretty safely say that you've got yourself in a quite pickle. I may be able to shed some light on what is going on but not if you throw me out," Koishi said with allusive grin on her face. Everyone just looked at each other and then sighed.

"Okay, let's hear it," Reimu responded and just shook her head.

"Oooh, splendid. First of all let's put it simply. The main problem you're dealing with is that the reality is falling apart," Koishi said while retaining that grin on her face.

"WHAT!?" Everyone exclaimed at once.

"What is this nonsense you're talking about?" Patchouli asked with serious look on her face.

"Ah, you haven't noticed? All these strange things that have happened resently? They're like shards of glass preluding the imminent cataclysm that will shatter the time and space completely," Koishi said. It almost seemed like she was getting excited while telling this.

"And you believe us to just take that as a truth? How you could have figured this out on your own?" Reimu asked with doubtful look on her face and arms akimbo.

"Sometimes truth is more unbelievable than fiction. Indeed, it would be impossible for me to come up with this on my own. But with infinite amount of Koishis it didn't take more than just couple seconds," Koishi said and sat down onto the table. She saw how Reimu was about to open her mouth to ask a question again but Koishi interrupted her by saying, "Now, if you'd just be patient I could explain." Reimu then just looked at Koishi silently and enhanced her poisture to sign Koishi that she was listening.

"Thank you. As I said I technically didn't figure this out on my own. But let me explain this from the ground up. When you dream your subconsciousness is at its strongest which allows you to see what your other selves are doing in other realities. These are the things you call dreams. The link you create to your other self is also affected by your subconsciousness, meaning that you'll create a link to a reality that is somehow related to the events or topics that you went through during your day resulting in dreams about something related to your day. As for me, I am a subconsciouss being so that link I create while I sleep is expectadly stronger than normally. I can even communicate with my other self while the link persists. But recently that link has been possible even during when I'm awake meaning that something has brought the alternate realities closer to each other. That on the other hand has made it possible that we've been able to create a network, connecting an endless amount of Koishis. We can share information by letting ourselves get into each others' heads in seconds. And since there's an edless amount of Koishis, that means that at least one of them has the answer for the question you're looking for," Koishi explained with a bit more grim look on her face. Everyone just looked at Koishi silently waiting for her to continue. Once Koishi saw that she had caught the attention of everyone she grinned and continued.

"And as it turns out this isn't the first reality that is in the brink of collapsing. In fact there have been many before this and there will be many after this. The chain reaction has been going on for a while now. You see, something has ripped a hole to the fabric of the time and while doing so completely obliterated the reality they came from in the process. And that someone is sitting right here next to us," Koishi said and looked at Flandre who looked back at her with confused and a bit offended look on her face.

"Not that she would have done it intentionally nor does she even remember doing this before but I assure you, this is not the first time she has appeared. She appearing has always been a prelude for the destruction. She herself just doesn't remember it nor even know anything about this. The cycle just start over and over again with her with each reality. But let me explain this to you so that you can understand. Imagine a huge pile of really thin glass panels. Each of the panels represents one reality. On the glass panel that is at the top there's a small but sharp rock that moves back and forth. This is the time traveling Flandre has been doing. As the rock moves back and forth it damages the glass panel but it doesn't break. But the glass panel can only take so much and when the rock has finally eroded its way through the glass the panel explodes into billions of little fragments. These fragments then fall onto the next panel. You've all experienced the strange occurences or seen some strange things lately, haven't you. Well those are those shards. The pieces of the reality that is no more. But the worst is yet to come. As the old glass has exploded, it and the stone now fall to the next panel but this time no eroding is needed and the stone just breaks the next panel as it falls on it breaking it too in the process collecting even more shards as it falls. This has been going on for a while already and now that Flandre is here, this reality has just been shattered," Koishi explained with a grim spark in her eye.

"But we're still here. I haven't sene any signs of any reality breaking," Reimu said with a bit nervous look on her face.

"Of course not. It doesn't happen immediately. Think of it as a snow ball that is rolling down a hill. When it starts it doesn't seem like anything but you know what happens after a while, don't you," Koishi said and stared at Reimu. They then looked at each other with serious looks on their faces. They really didn't know if they should believe Koishi or not.

"So what we've experienced recently are just... shattered pieces of the other timelines, am I correct?" Eirin asked while rubbing her chin.

"Yes, I can actually demonstrate it to you right now. Flandre, what happened to Marisa in your own timeline?" Koishi then said and asked from Flandre after turning towards her.

"S-she died. If you claim to know so much about this already then shouldn't you know this," Flandre responded with a bit doubtful look on her face.

"Why of course. You just haven't let them in on a one certain detail," Koishi said with allusive grin on her face while staring at Flandre.

"You know what I mean. What happened to her before she died?" Koishi continued.

"S-she turned into vampire," Flandre said with a bit nervous tone and look on her face.

"Exactly. In Flandre's timeline there were only two outcomes that could happen: either Marisa dies or becomes a vampire. Now that same... well, shard of your timeline has reached another reality with you resulting in Marisa's strange condition. The universe follows few certain rules when it comes to the flow of time. In your case it means that when you arrive Marisa will turn into vampire or die and since neither of them had happened before you arrived universe became confused and locked Marisa's body into this mid field. She is neither dead or alive but will die if the decision isn't made. She either has to become vampire or die," Koishi explained and shrugged her shoulders.

"So... that's how it is. A pre written rule in time continuum. Yeah... that would explain a lot," Eirin muttered with thoughtful look on her face.

"This is crazy. That mistake has been done too many times before. Her turning into a vampire results in nothing good. There just has to be another way to resolve this," Flandre retorted and slammed her palm to the table.

"Well if you managed to stop this domino effect that is destroying the realities, then sure, she would return back to normal," Koishi said and shook her head like it would be obvious.

"Then how do we do it," Reimu asked with a bit lightened up look on her face.

"Ahhh... spoilers," Koishi simply uttered and chuckled to herself.

"What do you mean with that. Just tell us what we need to do," Flandre almost yelled with confused look on her face.

"But, you see, I can't. Nor can I tell you if it is even possible," Koishi said and looked at Flandre.

"Why the hell you can't, just say it," Flandre now yelled. She felt like Koishi was taunting them with the fact that she knew something they didn't.

"I can't. If you'd know what I know, you'd understand why I cannot tell you the answer. You'll find out if you get far enough. Any other questions?" Koishi said with a slight grin on her face. Then Alice stood up with serious look on her face. She had been quiet so far.

"What of that strange spirit that has appeared. It hasn't been just momentary incident like most other things we've encountered so far," Alice said with serious tone.

"At last someone asks the question I've been waiting to answer. Now it's time to give you some food for thought. Not all of you have been completely honest and wont be. Not everyone is willing to tell every last bit of information they have. For an example Alice, you haven't informed others about your and Marisa discovery from yesterday evening, have you," Koishi asked and looked at Alice with cunning look on her face. Alice clearly winced a little after Koishi said that.

"Yeah, not that it matters. Just want to point out that trust should be a hard thing to come by during times like these. But back to your question. Oh, and don't worry, the information you've come by is practically irrelevant. You can't do anything with it. So, the thing you've started to call a spirit is not actually a spirit. It is a thought," Koishi started to explain.

"A... thought?" Reimu asked and then took a glimpse at Alice and Marisa who was still laying in front of the fireplace.

"Yes, that is what it precisely is. A thought. A thought that is amplified and carried along with Flandre from reality to reality. A thought so greatly amplified after traveling through so many realities that it has gained a form. That thought has been traveling from reality to reality together with Flandre, always appearing a little before Flandre arrives. That thought originates from someone within Gensokyo or otherwise it would have left. That thought is trying to find its host and once it does... well it is comparable to times when something you've forgotten returns to your mind. And after the reality is destroyed the thought travles once again with Flandre to a new reality but this time as a bit more powerful entity. That being said it should also be noted that that kind of an amplification of form doesn't apply only to just thoughts. It applies to everything. Want my advice? Keep your eye on Sanae," Koishi explained as well as she could with that strange, grim spark in her eye.

"But there are two of them," Alice said without caring to explain what she and Marisa already knew about that entity.

"Then there are two. It doesn't make a difference. They're just two thoughts, probably form different hosts," Koishi said and shrugged her shoulders.

"Then who are the hosts?" Alice continued with a bit more curious tone.

"Spoilers," Koishi said and moved her finger across her lips indicating that she wouldn't tell anything more regarding the subject. Everyone just looked at each other in confusion and in slight disbelief.

"T-then what should we do now?" Reimu asked carefully now when Koishi was finished with her explanation.

"Ah, to get the correct chain of events into motion you have to first deal with Marisa then the reality will start to breath its last," Koishi said and leaned against her knees while looking at Reimu.

"Why would we want that?" Patchouli asked with doubtful look on her face.

"Because if you do nothing your fate is sealed. Might be sealed either way but given that this reality is your only lifeline I'd suggest you to give it everything you got. It is interesting to see how this plays out," Koishi said and hopped off from the table and walked up to Marisa.

"Now, back to the matter at hand. You want to see if you can resolve this? Start with Marisa. Either turn her into a vampire or let her die," Koishi said like it was nothing. They all just looked at Koishi with a bit shocked look on her face.

"Never! I refuse to do such thing ever again," Flandre retorted and stood up from her chair with offended look on her face.

"You don't have to of course. The other you can do it just as easily. Gosh, this is frustrating. Is it okay if I call you, the one who have traveled in time, Flandre, and the one who hasn't, Flan? That would make it so much easier to identify you two. Good? Nice," Koishi said and shrugged her shoulders.

"No, she wont be turned and that's that," Flandre yelled. It seemed that she had decided what her opinion on the matter was.

"Very well but we might want to ask Marisa's opnion on the matter too. In the end it is she who we're talking about," Koishi said, kneeled in front of Marisa and pressed their foreheads against each other.

"Yohoo? Marisa? Anyone home?" Koishi spoke into Marisa's head, not with her actual voice but with a voice inside Marisa's head.

"Huh? You can talk to me like this?" Marisa asked from Koishi. It was like she was having conversation with Koishi through her thoughts.

"Why of course I can. But any how, how do you feel about this. Are you ready to die or do you want to become a vampire?" Koishi asked through Marisa's thoughts.

"This is crazy, you know it," Marisa responded. She had listened to Koishi talking for the whole time and was as confused as everyone else.

"But if you don't believe me on this, then you have to be ready to die. If you can trust me then you have to be ready to become a vampire," Koishi responded.

"Didn't you just say that you shouldn't trust anybody so easily?" Marisa retorted. She was doubting everything right now.

"Yes and that's why I'm giving you the option. The choice is yours. But remember what you know. Are you willing to let that fade into obscurity with yourself?" Koishi responded calmly which irritated Marisa even more.

"Then what about the fact that I somehow moved to some sort of alternate version of the Scarlet Devil Mansion between the tremors where that entity could maintain itself constantly?" Marisa asked. She was going to use this opportunity to try and learn a bit more about what was going on in their world.

"Flandre's and your other self's arrival created a short window that allowed you to move back and forth in a simple borderspace attached to your own reality that the thought that you call 'entity' uses as a place where it can remain when it is unable to interract with the real world and chace you while doing so. You were already affected by the time distortion caused by Flandre so that's why only you were able to witness this. It is actually not that uncommon for that to happen in situations like these. Of course this is the only one I have witnessed in person though other Koishis have seen a lot more of these. Now then, have you decided or do you have any other questions?" Koishi asked after finishing her explanation.

"Fine! Fine. Just tell them that I agree on becoming a vampire. I will surely regret this but fine. If it is the only way for me to recover then just tell it to them," Marisa retorted. Koishi could easily feel that Marisa was pissed about the situation she was in but Koishi couldn't do anything else but to smile and make a slight nod.

"I'll inform them," Koishi said to Marisa and then separated her head from Marisa's. She then stood up and looked at the others.

"It seems she agrees to it," Koishi simply said and retained that usual grin on her face.

"Not really convincing. The fact that we didn't hear her agreeing on anything makes me doubt it," Patchouli said with strict look on her face.

"Well in that case... Marisa should have enough strength to at least make a moan or something, so... Marisa, if you hear this and agree on becoming a vampire to avoid the certain death that will come to you if you do nothing, please make a sound, otherwise stay silent," Koishi said and glanced at Marisa laying on the floor. It took few seconds but then Marisa made a slight twitch and a moan. It was hard for them to doubt Koishi now.

"Well then. I'll leave you to this now. You may do whatever you wish now but just to give you a hint: the sages are capable people," Koishi said and wiped the air with her arm while walking past the group looking at her.

"I'll be watching how you perform," Koishi continued and then just faded from everyone's field of vision. They just stood there silently and then looked at each other.

"S-so... that just happened. So what, do we just do what she told us to? What good can come out from any of this. She's just playing with us," Alice then uttered. It seemed that Koishi hasn't managed to convince her. At least on turning Marisa into a vampire.

"I agree with you," Remilia added.

"But she agreed to it herself. That makes me wonder if we actually are even in a position to doubt her," Eirin said while rubbing her chin.

"But if we turn her into a vampire what would it mean for us?" Reimu asked. She hadn't thought that things would go to such extremes as to deciding wether or not turn Marisa into a vampire.

"She would become a vampire. Nothing more, nothing less. But I fear that kinda goes against your doctrines as a Hakurei shrine maiden. She would be as much of a youkai as any other being in this room excluding you and Eirin of course," Patchouli responded.

"But it is curable right?" Reimu asked with unsure tone and look on her face.

"Yes... to a certain extend. She can be cured as long as she wont drink blood but after that she is beyond curing. But if what Koishi said is true, then that would suggest that first turning her into a vampire and then back wouldn't work. I fear that she would return to the state in which she is currently in," Patchouli continued with serious look on her face.

"Then it's absolutely off limits. I wont allow anyone turning into a vampire if that's the case," Reimu exclaimed and pulled out her purification rod.

"But wont she die if we leave her like this?" Eirin asked with a bit worried tone.

"No, Koishi is bluffing. She has to be," Reimu yelled and shook her head.

"Are you ready to take that risk?" Patchouli added.

"We cannot possibly know what is running through Koishi's head. I'm with Reimu on this," Alice said and stepped beside Reimu.

"But even if she's lying she still probably has more knowledge on everything happening around us than we do. Even if she's lying it is the only option we have. The things she told us make sense when you start to think about it," Eirin responded with strict tone and look on her face.

"No! This is utter lunacy! If we do what Koishi tells us to it'll all end in destruction of us all," Remilia retorted and stepped towards Eirin. She was definitely angry. But while they were quarreling thay hadn't paid attention to Flandre who had kneeled beside Marisa. Then they heard a sudden yell over their own arguments.

"Hey! Patchy... Remilia... Marisa's thirst for blood will be at its lowest if we give her blood right away when she's turned, right?" Flandre first yelled and asked after getting their attention. Remilia didn't respond to her but Patchouli gave Flandre a slight but a bit confused nod.

"Okay. And Marisa, if you truly agreed to this, please make a sound," Flandre continued and looked at Marisa. Marisa then once again let out a faint moan as a responce. Flandre then just sighed and stood up.

"What ever is happening, will happen or has happened, I'll take full responsibility of it all. Just let me help her and try to resolve this. If what Koishi said is true and I'm just some... destructive rock then what we have to lose on this. If this is the only lifeline we have to resolve this thing before everything is lost and the cycle starts again with a new reality then I'm damn right gonna take that chance. Help me or not. That's your choice. Just so you know, I'm used to handling things on my own," Flandre said with determined spark in her eye while staring at the others watching her with a bit confused looks on their faces.

"Fine then... But it's your call," Alice said and sighed a bit. Flandre then stepped towards Reimu who still looked as doubtfulas before and maybe even fearful.

"Please, let me help her. It can save her life," Flandre said and stared straigth into Reimu's eyes.

"But...S-sh... I-I can't. I cannot allow this," Reimu said, grabbed her hair and shook her head. It was abvious by now that she didn't know what she should do in the situation.

"I only ask that you think more about your friend than the rules you're forced to live by. I too wouldn't want to see her as a vampire. Trust me, I've witnessed it and it wasn't beautiful. But now we can control what is happening," Flandre said and stared right into Reimu's eyes.

"Okay... okay... Just... don't let it be for nothing," Reimu said while looking down at her feet.

"I'll give it my all," Flandre responded and nodded. They then turned towards Marisa. It was a pretty awkward situation for everyone of them. Flandre then stood towards Marisa but before doing anything she turned towards the rest of them and said, "I recommend that I'd be the one doing this. I'd wager 'Flan' wouldn't even try to be careful and I really wouldn't want to trust Marisa to my sister. Though I bet she couldn't do it even if she wanted," Flandre said and looked at them with grave serious look on her face.

"You're not my sister, so don't call me yours," Remilia simply responded with cold tone and look on her face with her arms akimbo.

"Right back at'ya," Flandre responded. Patchouli then stepped forward before Flandre could do anything.

"I'd ask you to wait for a moment. I'd want to take a sample of her blood before we do anything. I'd like to investigate her situation even further. I think I may be able to confirm if her situation is actually some sort of a glitch in time or if it is explainable with some other method," Patchouli said and looked at Marisa.

"Go on then. In the end not a single bit of information we can gather can hurt us," Flandre said and let Patchouli to approach Marisa. Patchouli then squatted beside Marisa, took a injection needle from one of the pockets of her robes and took a sample of Marisa's blood. She then stood up and put the sample away so that she could inspect it later.

"Now then. Do what you must do," Patchouli said and stepped away from Flandre.

"Okay. If I may, I 'd ask you to leave us in peace. I'd like to do this without any interruptions," Flandre said and looked at Reimu and the rest of them. They looked at each other first, then at Flandre and nodded as an agreement.

"I'd ask to stay and watch. I'd like to witness this myself. I promise I'll stay quiet. Also it'd be wise to have someone monitor the situation," Eirin said after raising her arm.

"It can't be helped, can it. Okay, you can stay, the rest of you should leave the room," Flandre said and then looked at Marisa on the matress. The others then did what Flandre had told them to. Eirin on the other hand moved to the corner of the room so that her presence wouldn't bother Flandre so much. She then just observed as Flandre walked up to Marisa and kneeled next to her.

"Do we really need to go through this all over again?" Flandre muttered out loud while looking at Marisa. Marisa didn't react to Flandre's mutterings in any way.

"Okay, here we go. This'll sting a bit but I'll try to be as careful as I can. Just try to relax," Flandre said to Marisa and moved herself a bit closer to her.

"Try to relax. What does she think? I'm being turned into a vampire by a vampire that is more unpredictable than weather during springs," Marisa thought to herself but tried to not think about it too hard. In the end she agreed to this to save her own life. Flandre then pulled Marisa's collar a bit so her neck would be better exposed and then brought her head to the biting distance. She then opened her mouth and sank her fangs into Marisa's neck. Marisa could feel the bite very clearly and felt how Flandre started to suck. Flandre had said it would sting just a bit but that felt like an understatement. But nevertheless the pain wasn't that hard to endure. Flandre was clinging to Marisa's body to make sure it would stay in place so that no accidents would happen. As Flandre sucked more and more of Marisa's blood Marisa started to become sleepy due to the loss of blood. It was around then when Flandre's saliva started to take an effect to Marisa's brain and being bitten by a vampire started to feel good. Then, a bit by bit Marisa started to fell unconsciouss because of the blood loss and the enzymes on Flandre's salive. At last Marisa's body finally gave in to Flandre's vampiric essence and she fell to a slumber and started to undergo the tranformation.

It felt weird. Marisa's mind was clouded to say the least. It was hard for her to think properly. Every attempt to think about her current situation was met with interruption by some unknown thirst. It felt intruding but also seducing at the same time. Not natural yet warm and welcoming. Marisa then opened her eyes. She couldn't see anything else other than a dark red crimson hue surrounding her. She was sitting on the floor though she couldn't distinguish the ground from sky. Every where she looked was the same. Marisa stood up and looked around herself a bit more but still saw nothing. She then started to walk to some random direction she chose.

"Where am I...," Marisa could utter while wobbling forward. Her head felt dizzy and she couldn't form any more sensible sentence. Not even a thought. She just continued walking onwards until she saw something in the distance. Her mind couldn't comprehend what it was she saw but she couldn't stop walking towards it either. She kept on walking until she finally reached the things she had seen. It was a flat, disc-shaped object that reflected her image. Marisa tried to remember what was the word for it has hard as she could.

"M... Mi-mir... M-me. That's me," Marisa uttered and grabbed a hold from the object and stared into it. But she didn't recognize the image that looked back at her. A creature with deep red eyes, fangs dripping with saliva and wings of a monster looked back at her from the object. Marisa however didn't back away from the image in fear nor disgust but stayed there and just looked at it tilting her head from one side to another in curiosity. The more she looked at the image the more it felt familiar. Suddenly it felt like meeting an old family member after a long time. She then reached out her arm to touch the image but upon lifting her arm she suddenly vomited out a huge amount of blood. Marisa looked at the blood she had vomited but kept reaching out for the image. As she brought her arm closer she suddenly felt how her other leg started to fail. First it started to shake and then it failed completely, forcing Marisa to her knees. This however didn't stop her from reaching out but the more she approached the image the more her body started to wither. First her legs failed, then her upper body started losing its strength. She started to vomit more and more blood and finally it reached the point where her skin started to peel off. But even then the only thing she did was reach out for the image. In the end the only part of her body still working was her right arm that she used to reach out for the image. And with the remaining strength she touched the image.

Marisa took a deep gasp and her eyes burst wide open. She was still holding the object.

"Mirror, this is mirror," Marisa thought to herself and finally let go of it. But then she released her gaze from the borders of the mirror and looked at the image the mirror was reflecting. From the mirror she saw an image. And image that made her gasp for breath. An image of distorted landscape formed from everything imaginable. Buildings, vehicles, every-day-life-objects like closets and furniture. There was even a skyscraper rising from the ground but that building was distorted too. It was nothing more than a crumbling ruin. There was nothing natural about that landscape. There were no trees, no natural stones, no dirt, no grass. And when she looked up she saw only clouds with black, orange and red hue shrouding the sky that was as distorted as the landscape. The milkyway was twisted into shapes unimaginable. Still images of galaxies crashing into eachother. Stars close and far in positions they shouldn't be in. Gas clouds burning with brightest colours one could think of. But everything stood still. It all looked so chaotic but still asleep. And the silence. The eerie oppressive silence that would quench all the sounds from the forest just before the first thunderstrike of the storm had fallen over the landscape. No wind, nothing. Just the image and the silnece. Marisa then looked even higher up and finally saw it. A black sphere surrounded by pale, reddish glow was howering above everything and just stared at her. Staring into nothingness made Marisa want to scream and run away but she was unable. She was captivated by this sight. The pinnacle of darkness howering above everything surrounded by that ominous glow. When stared at it her eyes didn't want to look at it but she forced them to do it anyway. Finally she had to look away from that thing and when she brought her gaze to the ground she found a skeleton at her feet reaching out for her with its right arm. It was then when Marisa snapped out from it. She backed away couple of steps. The mirror was gone but the image seen through the mirror was everywhere. The distorted landscape and the sky. Marisa's heart started to pound faster and faster and she started to gasp for air. She then opened her mouth and touched her eyeteeth. They were long and fang-like. She then reached for her back and felt two wings stretching out from it. Her eyes then caught a small puddle of water on the distorted ground. From the puddle two eyes flaming with scarlet hue stared back at her. She started to breath more and more heavily as the world around her started to move again. The clouds, the objects on the sky, the wind. All she could do was to look at the skeleton at her feet again.

"That's me," Marisa uttered with unbelieving and terrified look on her face. It felt like hert heart was about to burst out from her chest. She then looked up and saw that the sphere was getting bigger... or closer. It was consuming all the objects from the sky darkening it bit by bit until the sky was only black. Then the world around Marisa started to fade into nothingness. First the horizon, then the landscape a bit closer to her, then skyscraper next to her until the darkness was close enough to touch her.

"AAAAAAARGHH," Marisa screamed from the bottom of her lungs and stood up from the matress that was still lying next to the fireplace. She looked around herself and saw the surprised and almost startled looks on Flandre's and Erin's face. She then immediately brought her hand onto her chest and tried to find a heart beat. And there it was. The heart beat she knew and loved.

After she had caught her breath she managed to open her mouth to speak, "Is... is it done. Am I...?" Flandre then approached Marisa and sat in front of her.

"Yes but I'd suggest you to take it easy. While you were sleeping we gave you blood. Now you're a full fledged vampire. I'd suggest you to be careful at first. I'm sure you aren't used to your new powers," Flandre said and tried to get Marisa to lay down but Marisa refused. She forced herself up from the matress even if her back and head hurt.

"I have no time for that. I need to get to the others now," Marisa said while holding her head and looked a little dizzy. Flandre was about to try and stop Marisa from rushing anywhere but Marisa was already up and ran to the door without caring for Flandre and her concerns.

"Oh yeah... I forgot that she isn't the same Marisa I'm familiar with. There is no friendship between us... or with her and Flan," Flandre then uttered with a bit depressed look on her face. Eirin just looked at her with a bit compassionate and curious look. She had observed Marisa's transformation to vampire very carefully and had made notes about the event.

Marisa reeled herself to the door leading out from the room and pushed it open. Her head and body still hadn't fully recovered and she was a bit drowzy. Marisa stumbled through the door and fell on all fours since the coordination of her movement was still a bit lacking. Reimu, Alice and the others who had waited for Flandre and Marisa to finish were quite surprised after Marisa rushed through the door like that. Sakuya and Flan too had joined them. Meiling on the other hand had stayed at the gate.

"H-holy...! M-Marisa, are you okay?" Reimu exclaimed after Marisa rushed through the door. She was about to run to her friend but Patchouli stopped her. Patchouli then calmly walked up to Marisa and looked at her.

"Seems like the tranformation has gone well without any real accidents. You shouldn't run around like that. Can you stand?" Patchouli asked after confirming Marisa's state.

"Yeah, yeah," Marisa groaned and stood up after pushing Patchouli a little to indicate that she didn't need help. Marisa then shook her head and looked at the others in the room.

"Damn, Alice is still here with us. I cannot reveal what I found from her basement to the others. Not while she's around. Besides, after what Koishi said I cannot even be sure if the kids in the basement were real. I hate to admit it but that could have been just one of those 'fragments' Koishi was talking about. I'll have to think about the way I approach this very carefully. I have to confirm that what I saw was truly real," Marisa thought to herself with a bit dizzy look on her face. Eirin and Flandre then joined them from behind Marisa.

"It seems Koishi wasn't lying. This truly got Marisa out from that... what ever you wanna call that state," Eirin said after walking to the room with the others.

"Yeah, yeah, but what do we have to do now is to get the information around. We can't just sit around here and wait," Marisa said while still holding her head.

"Don't worry, we will do that. But you'll have to rest. You clearly don't undertsand, you're no human anymore. You still haven't fully recovered from your ordeal and are in a need of rest," Patchouli said with strict look on her face. She then asked Marisa to open her mouth so she could take a look at her fangs. She then took a look at Marisa's back which had started to grow a pair of wings. They still were just nodes with black skin on them but Patchouli said that they would grow to be full fledged wings in couple of days. They then got Marisa to finally sit down and catch her breath but she still wouldn't stay silent.

"About what Koishi said earlier. That the reality is falling apart. I visited Yuuka yesterday. Or at least tried. Apparently she hasn't been anywhere to be seen over a week now. When I visited her mansion the only thing I found was couple of dusty books from her living room that were about time travel and such," Marisa explained with wide open eyes.

"So what are you implying?" Sakuya asked and tilted her head.

"I'm implying that she was onto something. Somehow she found out about all of this almost week before anything had started to happen and now she has disappeared. Come on, you cannot deny that this is suspicious," Marisa almost yelled. The others looked at her and then at each other. They had to admit that Marisa had a point. Flandre on the other hand seemed a bit ruminative.

"I don't know if this is a coincidence or not but before I got here Yuuka was one of the few people who knew about my time traveling and could retain her memories even when I had traveled and changed the future," Flandre uttered while rubbing her chin.

"And who were the others?" Alice asked.

"There was just one beside her, Yukari," Flandre said and looked at the others.

"Then our next move is clear. We have to get Yukari to gather the sages of Gensokyo once again and then disquss the matter further. If there are anyone who can figure something out from this, it is them," Reimu said with determined look on her face. Others seemed to agree, all except Eirin who didn't really like Yukari in any way because she and lunarians had a violent history that most of the others weren't aware of. However this is what they agreed on even if Eirin said that she'd leave herself out from the further actions the others would take. The decision they made was to leave Marisa to the mansion to have some rest while the others willing to go out would search for the sages. They had come into a conclusion that Yukari alone wouldn't be willing to make the sages gather up but with the three they knew already together Yukari just might be forced to go along with their plan of getting sages to help them.

Reimu had set out to search for Okina since she was the only one capable of reaching her since only she knew how to get to her. Alice on the other hand headed for the Former Capital where Koishi had said that she saw Kasen. And finally Sakuya was tasked with finding Yukari by going through the Nethwer World even if she herself didn't like the idea. Given that Youmu lived there and was suspecting her for the disappearance of the children of the human village she really wasn't too fond of the idea of going to the Nether World. But even so that's where she ended up heading. While flying above the skies of Gensokyo she was constantly wondering what if Youmu were to attack her upon sight. In the end the Nether World was Youmu's home and she had the home field advantage if it came to that.

However she didn't get to think about that for a very long time since she reached the portal to the Nether World quite fast. That portal was like a huge door within the clouds accompanied by four huge pillars. She very well remembered the first time visiting this place even though this was the place meant for the dead. Over decade ago she Marisa and Reimu had entered the Nether World in order to resolve the endless winter incident. Later they used the same path to reach Yukari who they later convinced to fix the barrier around the Nether World and Gensokyo. That event was still crystal clear in her mind. If this would have been her first time visiting the place she was sure she would have been greeted with resistance since living weren't really too welcome to the realm of the dead but now she could enter freely since she had once already forced her way through.

Beyond this magnificent looking door opened the Nether World. A cold but beautiful and peaceful place. Sakuya stood on the bottom of the unimaginably long staircase and looked up. The staircase was decorated with many torii and lanterns. It was bordered with cherry tree forests that were in everlasting bloom and stretched as far as the eye could see to the left, right and up as well. Then Sakuya started her walk. She had noticed that trying to rush the stairs up by flying usually resulted in it taking more time than walking. Nether World seemed to have a mind of its own and being a world of the dead, rushing really wasn't too polite thing to do upon arriving there. That's why taking one's time to actually climb the steps in peace sometimes resulted in reaching the top faster.

Sakuya's walk had just barely begun when the ghosts around the Nether World started to take interest in her. They flew around her and seemed curious about her presence. A living being wasn't that common sight. Sakuya decided to just ignore these curious white blobs not just because she couldn't be bothered to make new friends but also because the ghosts were emitting cold and since Sakuya hadn't prepared for cold air she decided to just ignore them and hope that they would lose interest in her soon enough. And to Sakuya's luck they did. After they lost their interest in her they just started circling around the landscape like they usually did.

From there it took Sakuya a good twenty minutes or so to finally reach the top of the staircase that was marked with another of those red torii. On top of the staircase she found the familiar pale, almost greyish green plains of short grass and gravel. In the middle of it all was the ever so beautiful and elegant Hakugyokurou, the mansion of the princess of the Nether World. And behind that was the Saigyou Akashi, the huge cherry tree of death said to be unable to ever reach its full bloom.

"Here we are then. Let us see if anyone is home," Sakuya muttered to herself and walked towards the front terrace of the mansion. It was usual to find Youmu from around the yard of the mansion tending the garden or the cherry trees but this time she was nowhere to be seen. Sakuya was hoping that she wouldn't have to deal with the half phantom gardener at all. Despite that she continued towards the front door of the mansion until she finally reached it. She looked at the door for a moment before taking a depe breath and finally knocking.

At first there was no response. Sakuya was just about to knock again when a face appeared through the door. Sakuya was startled a little by the appearance of the familiar face but was set at ease as soon as Yuyuko pulled her face back and opened the door.

"Oh, miss Izayoi. What brings you here?" Yuyuko asked with a bit surprised and delighted look on her face. Yuyuko was the princess of the Nether World and a good frind of Yukari's. She had a wavy pink shoulder length hair. She was wearing a light blue and white kimono with dark blue trim and white designs; a blue mob cap on the front of which is hitaikakushi with a red ghost insignia; and a veil of the same color of the kimono behind her head. Even if the ghost in front of Sakuya, Yuyuko, had the ability to inflict death to anything and everything at will she still was light-headed and friendly towards anyone willing to have a conversation.

"I have a bit of an errand to run. May I come in and explain it?" Sakuya asked and bowed humbly. In the end it was a princess they were talking about.

"My, my, of course. It isn't usual for us to have visitors so please come in," Yuyuko said and floated happily inside the mansion. Sakuya followed her and closed the door behind herself. Sakuya looked around herself for a moment. The mansion was as elegant as she had remembered. The colors were mostly pale and temperate. There were few decorative plants here and there. The floor and the corner pillars were the only exception in the otherwise almost even ghostly color pallet. They were dark brown.

"They do not want the place looking like a mental hospital," Sakuya thought to herself and walked further into the mansion until she found Yuyuko waiting for her from a small room that had to pillows to sit on and a table with two cups of tea on top. Sakuya walked to the room and sat onto the other pillow. Yuyuko was sitting in front of her.

"So what errand do you have that would make you to come here?" Yuyuko asked with friendly smile on her face.

"I need to find Yukari. Everyone knows you two are good friends so I figured that you would be the best person to ask about her where abouts," Sakuya answered and took the tea cup from the table.

"It is true that she is hard to find if you don't know how to do it. What business do you have with her?" Yuyuko continued with curious look on her face.

"I am sure you know already that Gensokyo has had a series of strange occurences lately. I and many others think that we have found out the reason and the knowledge has to be brought to Yukari's attention immediately," Sakuya responded and took a sip from her tea.

"Oh, yes. Youmu has been really worried about that. She has told me quite lot," Yuyuko said with thoughtful look on her face.

"Speaking of which where is she?" Sakuya then asked and looked around herself.

"She's been out for quite while already. She left this morning and said that she was going to do some investigating of her own," Yuyuko responded and rubbed her chin.

"I see...," Sakuya responded with thoughtful look on her face.

"But anyhow, I am willing to help you in finding Yukari but I must ask a favor from you first," Yuyuko said and took a sip from her tea. Sakuya just looked at her and waited her to continue.

"Since Youmu has been away for a while already there has been no one to cook me anything. Would you be willing to make something for me? I've heard your a good cook," Yuyuko said with almost pleading look on her face. Sakuya could swear Yuyuko had practiced that kind of a puppy face for a quite some time.

"I see no harm in it. If you are willing to help me then sure, I am willing to cook you something," Sakuya said and sighed with amused look on her face. In truth she was not amused at all. She thought this kind of a hindrance was throughly annoying but she knew that Yuyuko was easy to persuade with food so she really didn't have a choice.

After finishing her tea Yuyuko lead Sakuya to the kitchen of Hakugyokurou where Sakuya could get started. Yuyuko watched with intrigued look on her face as Sakuya started to work. In Yuyuko's mind it was the same as watching a world-class actress performing. In the end Yuyuko loved nothing else more than food so to her chefs were the same as the best artists in the world.

It took Sakuya a quite some time to finally be finished but that was to be expected since she was used to taking her time when preparing food. After all Sakuya didn't want to give a bad image about herself by preparing some cheaply made food in a hurry. As soon as Yuyko saw that Sakuya was almost finished she returned to the room where they had initially had a conversation. Sakuya just glance over her shoulder and sighed. She then finished her cooking, took a tray and walked back to the room where Yuyuko was waiting for her.

"*Sigh Just go to the Nether World they said. It will be easy they said," Sakuya mumbled as she walked to the room where she saw Yuyuko sitting on the pillow with delighted look on her face. If she didn't have any manners Sakuya could swear that Yuyuko would be drooling already.

"There," Sakuya uttered and lowered the train in front of Yuyuko.

"Ooooh, looks delicious," Yuyuko said with her hands clapped together.

"Thank you. So are you now willing to lend a hand?" Sakuya asked while wiping her hands with a towel.

"Mphmhh," Yuyuko just mumbled with her mouth full. She had been quick at starting to eat. Sakuya just looked at her and tilted her head. Yuyuko then just shook her head and snapped her fingers once. Immediately after a gap opened behind Yuyuko. It was exactly like the one Yukari usually used to move around. Yuyuko then just pointed at the gap, mumbled something and got back to eating. Sakuya just looked at the gap for a moment.

"Guess it sometimes is just that obvious," Sakuya thought to herself and walked into the gap. It then soon closed behind her. She looked around herself. She was clearly in some sort of a building. It looked pretty fancy but she couldn't really say much more about it. She walked to the window and looked outside. The exterior of the building she was in looked a bit ominous to say the least. A purplish mist was everywhere but there was no signs of any ground to be seen. Every where she looked there were just hundreds upon hundreds of eyes. Some where looking at her and some where looking at somewhere else.

"Well I certainly am in a right place," Sakuya muttered to herself while looking out.

"Depends on where you wanted to be," Sakuya then heard a voice saying next to her. Sakuya looked at the direction where the voice came from and saw a familiar kitsune standing there.

She was Ran, Yukari's shikigami. Ran had a shoulder length blonde hair and a two-tailed white hat with many amulets on top of her head under which she was hiding her fox ears. She had nine fox tails and was wearing a blue and light purple dress with blue print on the front. Sakuya then approached Ran and asked, "Is your master around?"

"Depends. Why are you asking? What business do you have with her?" Ran asked with serious look on her face and her arms in each other's sleeves.

"I may have information regarding the recent events that I'm sure you're aware of," Sakuya responded with as serious look on her face as on Ran's.

"I see. Well if that's the case you can just tell what you know to me and I'll deliver the information forward," Ran said and looked at Sakuya,

"I would much rather do it myself," Sakuya responded with her arms akimbo.

"It's okay Ran. Please, leave us be. I'd really much like to speak to her personally," Could suddenly be heard being said from behind Ran. Ran then turned around and saw Yukari standing behind herself.

Yukari had a really long blonde hair that was tied with many red ribbons. She also had a white mob cap with a red ribbon on top of her head. She was wearing a Chinese-style tabard with various Trigrams over a white Western-styled dress. She was carrying a pink parasol with her. Yukari was tall and lady-like and knowing how powerful and wise she was her confident looks gave off a pretty menacing feeling.

"Yes, lady Yukari," Ran said and bowed to her master. She then left Yukari and Sakuya to the room together.

"So it seems you have something important for me? Important enough to go to the Nether World, talk to Yuyuko and get her to let you come here? That was a lengthy trip I'm sure," Yukari said with a bit amused look on her face while leaning her chin against her arms.

"Let's just cut the small talk and go straight to the point," Sakuya said with unamused tone and look on her face.

"How ever you wish," Yukari said and the look on her face switched to seriousness.

"The events happening around Gensokyo, are you familiar with them?" Sakuya asked with her arms akimbo.

"More than you might believe. What about them?" Yukari asked with much more grim look on her face.

"Well it has come to pass that we just might have figured out what has caused this strain of events," Sakuya responded and looked at Yukari.

"Have you now? It really took you quite some time now, did it," Yukari said with sarcastic grin on her face.

"What is that supposed to mean? Are you saying that you already know what is going on?" Sakuya then asked with a bit surprised look on her face.

"Saying that I know everything about what's going on would be an over statement. But saying that anything that has happened has been a surprise to me would be a lie," Yukari said with dead serious look on her face.

"So are you saying that you knew that all this would happen beforehand?" Sakuya asked.

"I was certain that something would happen but not what. I've felt for a long time already that something has been a little off. Sudden sifts in winds, ripples in the water and my pure gut feeling have told me that something is up," Yukari mumbled and walked up to window.

"And you have not told anyone about this or tried to prevent it in any way?" Sakuya asked with annoyed look on her face.

"How can you fight that of which you know nothing about? Besides just observing was the best course of action I could take. To catch the culprit behind all of this one must first wait till they make a mistake," Yukari said and glanced at Sakuya.

"The culprit...," Sakuya mumbled while rubbing her chin.

"So what is this information you were about to tell me?" Yukari then asked and turned towards Sakuya.

"Not here. Besides I am probably not the best person to tell you about what we have found out. Reimu, I and others who have worked with us have decided that we will gather at the shrine this evening to discuss the matter further," Sakuya said with serious look on her face.

"Hmmm... I really don't know what you are scheming but I suppose I could take a listen to what you have supposedly found out," Yukari said and smirked a little.

"So you accept our invitation?" Sakuya asked to confirm.

"Yes, although Ran will come and accompany me there if that's not too much of a problem to you," Yukari said with sly grin on her face.

"Not that it would bother me at least," Sakuya said and tilted her head.

"Good. You can stay here till the sun set and I will gap you to the shirne along with me and Ran," Yukari said, turned around and walked deeper into the building they were standing in. Sakuya just looked after her for a moment before walking up to the window to take a better look at the sights outside.

Meanwhile in the Land of Rear Doors Reimu was having an audience with Okina, or that's how she herself had described it. Okina wasn't really the nicest god one could visit to have a chat since she treated everyone as subjects to her. Besides the Land of Rear Doors was so hard to find that one could much rather just give up if they didn't know exactly what they were doing. And on top of that Reimu and many others thought that Okina's realm had such a hideous name that one would want to stay as far away from there as possible.

But despite all of this Reimu had to go there and she was currently standing there looking at Okina who was floating with her throne couple meters above Reimu. Okina had a long blonde hair. She was wearing a yellow tabard adorned with constellations, green skirt with big yellow sleeves and long black boots. On top of her head there was a black three point hat.

Okina's realm, the Land of Rear Doors was exactly what the name implied. Doors as far as the eye could see, each leading to a different place. Reimu had always thought that Okina's ability to create a door at the back of anything and everything seemed a lot like Yukari's gap ability. Maybe it had something to do with them both being sages of Gensokyo.

"So what you're saying is that I should come to your shrine to do what? Discuss some nonesense about something being lost?" Okina asked with a bit annoyed tone and look on her face.

"That something is half of the children of the human village. And that's not even the main problem we have," Reimu said with pissed look on her face. Okina annoyed her and she didn't enjoy being there even a single bit but someone still had to do it.

"Well isn't that sad but I'm sorry to tell you that my occupation as a sage of Gensokyo doesn't bind me to follow you around. My duty is to make sure that the barrier around Gensokyo stays up, nothing more, nothing less," Okina said and swiped the air with her hand with indifferent look on her face.

"So you're fine with your influence in Gensokyo being smaller than that of a common youkai, hmm?" Reimu asked with her arms akimbo.

"Listen here girl, my influence in this world is undeniable and I'm the one who decides when it is a proper time to use that influence. And currently I can't be bothered with your problems. Go annoy someone else," Okina said and leaned against the hand support of her throne with her elbow.

"So you're fine with the fact that Yukari and Kasen will make your decisions for you? Doesn't sound much like you," Reimu said and shrugged her shoulders.

"What does this have to do with them?" Okina asked with annoyed tone and look on her face.

"Oh, you haven't figured it out already? We're gathering the sages of Gensokyo together to deal with these incidents. How would it affect your reputation if you decided to leave yourself out from this?" Reimu asked with suggestive grin on her face.

"Them... Have they already agreed to this?" Okina then asked with doubtful look on her face.

"Pretty much yeah," Reimu said and shrugged her shoulders.

"They better have or I am going to haul them there to my shrine with violence," Reimu thought to herself.

"Let me think about this for a moment," Okina said with thoughtful look on her face. It seemed that Reimu had hit the soft spot. She just looked how Okina was sitting on her throne, rubbing her chin and mumbling something to herself.

"Why does she need time to think about this. Isn't it as easy as agree or decline?" Reimu thought to herself with impatient look on her face.

"By sages of Gensokyo, do you mean all of them?" Okina asked and looked at Reimu.

"Uh, yeah? Why else would I be here?" Reimu responded with unsure tone and look on her face while scratching her hair. She then just wached how Okina descended to the ground with her throne and stood up.

"I see. If that's the case then I'd be mad to ignore this chance. Tell me again when and where this meeting was supposed to take place," Okina asked with thoughtful look on her face.

"At my shrine after the sun set," Reimu responded.

"Fine then. I'll accept your invitation for all the good it'll do," Okina said but Reimu could clearly tell that Okina still wasn't sure what to think about this. The look on her face gave it away clearly. However Reimu was pleased that she had convinced Okina to agree to their meeting.

At the same time when Reimu was talking with Okina and Sakuya was meeting Yukari, Alice had made her way to the Former Capital underground. She was currently walking through the streets of former hell and searching for clues where Kasen could be. Walking around and seeing all the Oni around her didn't make her feel very safe. Not that Oni would have attacked her but Alice really didn't like to be surrounded by those stronger than her.

"Now, Koishi said she saw Kasen coming here... She was supposed to meet Yuugi so where do I have to look for them," Alice thought to herself until her eyes caught a building that was clearly made to stand out from the rest. It was well decorated and was standing on top of a hill giving away an idea of some sort of a temple.

"Hmmm, what do you bet...," Alice thought to herself and headed for the temple looking building in the distance. As she approached the building she started to see more and more Oni gathering around it. It seemed that whatever the building was something important was going on. When she finally reached the stairs leading to the building she saw dozens of Oni sourrounding the stairs that were seemingly guarded by few armed Oni. Alice then just sighed deeply and started squeezing her way through the crowd. Knowing that Oni had immense physical strength it proved harder than she had thought to get through but in the end she managed to get through the crowd and saw the Oni guarding the stairway. She then approached one of them.

"Uhmm, excuse me but what is going on around here?" Alice asked from the guardian Oni who looked at her with strange look on its face.

"Now who might you be little one? Don't ya know that this isn't place for your kind?" The Oni responded with rough tone.

"I just asked a question. No need to be rude," Alice said with a bit annoyed look on her face.

"The Big Four is gathering for the first time in about 150 years or so," The Oni responded and pointed at the building.

"The Big Four... Is Kasen in there?" Alice asked with a bit thoughtful look on her face.

"Yeah, Ibaraki brought Suika with her. This gathering was requested by Yuugi," The Oni replied and looked back at Alice.

"I have business with Kasen. May I enter?" Alice asked.

"Hah, you wish. Even the common Oni have been restricted from entering, so what makes you think you'll be let through, little one," Oni said and laughed.

"Me and Kasen know each other. You can even ask from her yourself," Alice said and shrugged her shoulders. The Oni just looked at her for a moment, then groaned a bit, turned towards one of its comrades and said, "Go ask them if this little fella is allowed to enter. She's a presistent one." The other Oni just nodded and started climbing the stairs towards the building.

"Just wait a bit. We'll see if you can enter," The Oni said with its arms akimbo. Alice waited for a moment until she saw the Oni from before returning from the building. The Oni walked up to the other Oni and whispered something to its ear. The Oni then turned towards Alice.

"Seems like it's ya lucky day. You may enter," Oni said and the guards lifted their spears from Alice's way allowing her to enter. Everything had gone smoothly so far. Alice climbed the steps towards the building. She had heard about this Big Four few times before and knew that they were a high ranking group amongst the Oni. If they where gathering in that building the royal appearance of the building really lived up to it. Alice soon reached the top where there were two more of those Oni guardians. As she apprached them they too lifted their spears from Alice's way allowing her to go through the door that had two pieces of fabric covering it. Alice pushed the pieces of fabric away and entered the quite gloomy space inside the building. The space she was in seemed to be the size of the whole building. It was well decorated and who ever had made it really hadn't spared in construction fees. The place was decorated with gold, jade and jewels giving it a royal feeling. It was almost like walking into a palace of an emperor or something. In the middle of the room there was a table shaped like a square, four pillows and four people sitting on them. Three of them she recognized but the fourth one was a stranger to her.

To the right from Alice was Kasen. In front of Alice with her back turned towards her was Suika. Suika was small in stature. Almost child like. She had orangeish long hair and two straight Oni horns on her head decorated with ribbons. She was wearing a tattered pale pink blouse, a long purple and pink skirt and three chain accessories tied to her belt; a ball, a pyramid and a block.

To the left from Alice there was sitting this unknown person. By the looks of the person's face, it was a he. This male Oni was wearing a long deep red kimono with white sleeves and trimming. He had long black hair that was tied behind his head with a red ribbon. He had a katana tied to his belt and one red horn on his forehead.

In front of Alice, sitting on the opposite side of the table facing towards her was Yuugi. She too, like the male Oni had only one red horn on her forehead but unlike the male's horn, her had a yellow star symbol on it. Yuugi has a long blonde hair. She was wearing a white short-sleeved shirt with red trim at the cufs, neck and bottom and a dark blue semi-transparent skirt with red highlights and trim. Her wrists and ankles are manacled with short, broken chains attached to the manacles.

They all then looked at Alice who was standing in the doorway looking a bit amazed by the interiors of the building.

"This over here is Alice Margatroid. A friend of ours from the above ground," Kasen then said and looked at the male Oni.

"Yo wassup Alice," Suika and Yuugi said together.

"Alice, please step inside. This here is Konngara," Kasen said and introduced Alice and Konngara to each other.

"Now, please, what business you had with me?" Kasen asked after Alice had stepped forward.

"Thanks. Well first of all, the Big Four? You're one of them? I admit that I had my suspicions about your Onihood but you were part of the Big Four," Alice said with a bit amazed tone and look on her face.

"Yes. I guess it was just a matter of time until this was to be revealed to the world," Kasen said with calm tone. She then grabbed the double buns on her head and pulled them off revealing two horn stubs that seemed to have been two full-sized horns at some point put had been cut.

"Wow. But why now? Why is the Big Four gathering now?" Alice asked with curious look on her face.

"It is Konngara you see. He recently sent a message to Yuugi saying that the Hell had fallen into chaos. He was occupied in the Hell, you see. However, in his message he said that no souls had come to hell in a whole week. The Yama were investigating the situation but Konngara decided to take matters into his own hands. Yuugi then wanted the Big Four to gather and discuss the matter further. This actually happened even before that strange spirit appeared in the Forest of Magic," Kasen explained with serious look on her face.

"That's right. My sister was fast to act and rightfully so. I fear that this might be more serious matter than we think," Konggara said with closed eyes.

"Wait. Sister? Are you two...?" Alice asked and pointed at Yuugi and Konngara.

"Siblings? Yeah. He's my brother," Yuugi said and grinned a little.

"Wow. I had no idea you had a brother," Alice said with amazed tone and look on her face.

"Well we haven't been in touch for a quite some time now so the topic has never been brought up," Yuugi said and shrugged her shoulders.

"But Alice, you were about to say why you were here," Kasen then said and looked at Alice.

"Oh yeah. Me, Reimu and the others are gathering the sages of Gensokyo and we obviously need you too," Alice responded. The four Oni just looked at Alice for a moment and then at each other. Alice just stared at them and tilted her head.

"Did I... say something wrong?" Alice then asked carefully but got no responde. Kasen and the rest of them then just leaned closer to each other and started whispering.

"The sages. What are they up to?" Suika asked.

"No, I don't they are up to anything. If this would be their idea it would be Yukari contacting me, not just someone she knows," Kasen replied.

"So what are we going to do?" Yuugi asked.

"I think we should agree to this... although with certain conditions. In the end it is better for us to keep out eye on them," Konngara whispered.

"I could keep you informed on everything we talk about in that meeting," Kasen said.

"I think it's best if we all are there in person to hear everything. Just to be safe," Konggara responded. They then pulled away and looked at Alice.

"I agree to come but only if their presence is allowed too," Kasen said and stared at Alice with serious look on her face.

"Sure... I think there's no problem with that. The meeting will happen at the Hakurei shrine after the sun set," Alice said after thinking about it for a moment.

"Good. We will be there. You may leave now," Kasen said and nodded to Alice. Alice nodded back at her before leaving the building.

"The Big Four gathering? What are they up to...?" Alice thought to herself as she walked down the stairs back towards the Former Capital.

The sun was starting to set in Gensokyo but it was still not quite late enough for the sages to assemble. Flandre was supposed to be there together with the sages, Reimu, Alice and Sakuya once the time would be right. Reimu had said she would come to pick Flandre up before the assemblage would start. She had wanted to be part of the assemblage no matter what. She was currently in the Scarlet Devil Mansion library waiting for Reimu to arrive. Flan, Marisa and Patchouli were there too. Marisa too would have wanted to go to the shrine but it was thought that she would need more rest before she could go out. Patchouli had been making tests on the sample of blood she had gotten from Marisa and they were currently waiting for Patchouli to tell them the results.

Flandre was just keeping an eye on her doppelganger that they had started to call Flan for the convenience. Koakuma on the other hand was keeping an eye on both of them just to be safe. Koakuma, as the name implied was a devil. She was wearing a black dress with white sleeves. She had two pairs of bat-like wings. One on her back and the other on her head. She also had long red hair.

"Flandre. What do you think it would take to turn Flan back to normal. Like you?" Koakuma then asked while looking how the two awfully similiar looking vampires sat on the floor of the library.

"Normal? What do you mean with that?" Flandre asked with a bit sarcastic tone.

"Mentally. You're much more stable than she is. What do you think it would take to cure her?" Koakuma continued.

"Saying that I would be totally healthy would be a lie. I try not to think about it but that crazy that once had control over me is still there. I cannot get rid of it. Never," Flandre said while looking at Flan.

"But you still have gotten better," Koakuma continued.

"I guess so. Not that it really matters. I guess I just started to get along with myself once I got something else to worry about. Besides if trying to save Marisa was the reason I started to get a bit better then I'm not sure if it could work for Flan. She doesn't seem to even care about her... or vice versa," Flandre said with a bit melancholic look on her face.

"Speaking of which, Patchouli seems to be finished. She has the results about Marisa," Koakuma said and pointed at Patchouli who was signing them to come to her.

"I'll be with you in just a minute," Flandre said and signed Koakuma to go ahead. She just watched how Marisa and Koakuma walked to Patchouli. She then just sighed and looked back at her doppelganger who seemed to be completely oblivious obout the world around her. She was just sitting there examining everything she could get her hands onto.

"Do you even understand that you and I are one and the same being?" Flandre asked out loud while looking at Flan but there was no response. Although she didn't even expect one.

"*Sigh I really hope that I could help you somehow," Flandre uttered and stood up. She then turned around and was just about to head towards Patchouli when she felt something grabbing her hand. She turned back towards Flan and saw her clinging to her hand with eyes wide open and staring at her.

"Huh?" Flandre uttered while watching her doppelganger stare at her.

"Did you ever count them?" Flan asked with strange glow in her eyes.

"W-what do you mean by that? Count what?" Flandre asked with a bit confused tone and look on her face.

"What did you count? Years or the lives? We don't deserve this. You know it. I know it too. I know more than you do. I counted. Every last one," Flan said with her eyes wide open. Flandre stared at her for a moment before pulling her arm free.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Flandre simply responded before walking away her.

"Liar," She heard Flan simply uttering while walking towards Patchouli. She however did not pay attention to Flan anymore.

"So what did you found out from the sample you took," Flandre asked after reaching Patchouli, Marisa and Koakuma.

"Well I considering that there were only two possible outcomes neither of them would have been a surprise. First of all Koishi wasn't lying, Marisa's condition wasn't due to any kind of illness or physical trauma. At least none that I'm familiar with. According to the blood sample she should have been completely fine," Patchouli explained what results she had gotten.

"So turning her into a vampire was the right course of action?" Flandre asked just to confirm.

"Seems like it so far. Though I'd still keep an eye on her. Wouldn't want her ending up in the same condition again," Patchouli said with concerned tone and look on her face.

"If that's the case then wouldn't it be easier for you to keep eye on me if I went to the shrine to hear what they're talking about," Marisa bridled with a bit annoyed look on her face.

"This again? Didn't we already explain to you that you need to rest? Besides haven't you always wanted to get your hands onto my library? Well now you're basically living here... for now," Patchouli responded with unamused tone. Marisa just groaned a bit with her arms akimbo and walked away.

"Miss Flandre, Reimu is finally here," They then heard Meiling yelling from the entrance of the library. Flandre immediately rushed to the entrance where she found Meiling and Reimu waiting for her.

"So is everything ready?" Flandre asked upon reaching Reimu.

"More or less. We are waiting for Kasen, Okina and Yukari to arrive at any moment. We'd better get there," Reimu said and signed Flandre to come. Flandre just nodded and followed Reimu to the front door of the mansion from where they took off towards the shrine.

The sun had almost set already so it wasn't too much of a bother to Flandre. This was the first time she visited outside of the mansion after arriving to this timeline. She had to admit that if she didn't know better she would have thought that she was in her own timeline. Everything looked just as she remembered it.

"So you really think the sages will figure something out?" Flandre asked from Reimu during mid flight.

"Absolutely. They're sort of people to come up with craziest ideas one can think of and connecting even the most far away dots," Reimu responded with serious but confident tone and look on her face.

"How so?" Flandre asked with a bit curious tone and look on her face.

"They are the ones who created Gensokyo. That should be enough," Reimu said and smirked a little. Flandre chuckled a little but the look on her face returned to serious soon after. She wanted to believe that she could put her trust onto Yukari and the rest of the sages but she really well remembered what had happened before she traveled through time the last time. The battle between the two was still fresh in her mind. Convenient for her was that each time she traveled through time she assumed the appearance of the Flandre that was living at the moment to which she ended up traveling. That made it so that she wouldn't have to worry about having to repair her clothes after each battle. Although she guessed she wasn't going to time travel any time soon, maybe never again knowing that it would most likely just cause more and more damage.

Reimu's and Flandre's flight was nearing its end when they finally saw the silhouette of the Hakurei shrine in the distance. The path to the shrine was lit which made it easier to spot. As they approached the shrine Flandre could already distinguish Alice's figure standing on the shrine grounds.

"Seems like Sakuya still hasn't return. Oh well, we'll wait for her," Reimu said as they started to land. Upon landing Alice immediately walked up to Reimu and said, "Kasen agreed to come but she'll bring some people with her. Do you think that'll be a problem?"

"Who she'll bring?" Reimu asked with a bit confused look on her face.

"You'll see soon enough. I think you'll be quite surprised," Alice responded with serious look on her face. Reimu just looked at her and tilted her head but had no time to say anything before they heard footsteps coming from behind them.

"I'm not late, am I," Okina said as she approached them.

"No. In fact you're the first one to arrive. We're still waiting for the rest of them to come," Reimu responded to the ever so uppish looking Okina.

"I see. I'll be waiting for the rest of them inside if that's okay with you," Okina then said, smirked a little and walked into the shrine.

"Not the most humble person?" Alice asked and looked after Okina.

"Not in seven hells," Reimu bridled with her arms akimbo. They then waited a bit longer till they saw a familiar figure approaching the shrine from the sky. And not just one, four.

"Kasen and her friends are arriving," Alice uttered and looked at their direction.

"Huh?" Reimu uttered with confused look on her face when she recognized who were accompanying Kasen.

"Suika? Yuugi? And who's that?" Reimu asked after watching how they landed to the shrine grounds.

"I knew Kasen, Yuugi and Suika knew each other but what are they doing here?" Reimu asked with confused look on her face.

"You'll know later on," Alice said with serious look on her face. Flandre on the other hand just stared at Konngara. For her it was so strange. She had never ever thought she would see him again let alone in Gensokyo. Seeing him brought back memories, pleasant and not so pleasant.

"Here we are, as promised," Kasen said and nodded to Reimu and Alice. She then looked at Flandre with a bit confused look on her face but decided to ignore her for now.

"Are we to head inside or...?" Kasen continued and looked at Reimu.

"Uh, yes, head on in. We're still waiting for Yukari," Reimu said stepped aside so Kasen, Suika, Yuugi and Konngara could enter.

"Now the only thing we need is Yukari... I hope Sakuya has convinced her to come," Reimu muttered half aloud.

"Not mentioning that if Sakuya accidentally revealed to Yukari that we're gathering the sages...," Alice said with serious look on her face.

"No, Sakuya isn't a type of person to reveal something like that to her," Reimu said while rubbing her chin.

"Reveal me what?" Reimu then heard Yukari's soft and cunning voice saying from just next to her.

"Hyaah," Reimu squealed in surprise and almost jumped into the air. Yukari had just gapped herself next to Alice and Reimu together with Ran who she had taken with her and Sakuya.

"C-can't you just arrive normally like other people do?" Reimu asked from between her gasps. She had thought she would get a heart attack.

"Aww, where's the fun in that? Besides the only way out from my manor is via my gap," Yukari said and grinned playfully. She then laid her eyes onto Flandre who looked at her with doubtful and maybe even frightful look on her face.

"You and I have history, I presume? I guess you're one of the reasons why I'm invited here," Yukari uttered with soft but serious tone and look on her face. She then looked around herself and then at the shrine.

"The other sages have arrived, have they," Yukari said and leaned against her parasol.

"Y-you know about them?" Alice asked with surprised look on her face.

"Oh, come now. You really think that you could do something like this without me knowing about it? It has been amusing to watch and besides I would be mad to not allow something like this to happen, even if there are few... 'buts' stirring the case further," Yukari said and smirked a little with her usual cunning way.

"Buts?" Reimu asked with a bit confused tone and look on her face.

"Don't worry, I'll explain it when the time is right. Come now, it's time to start an event that happened last time over one and a half century ago," Yukari said and started to walk towards the shrine. Alice, Sakuya and Reimu just looked at each other, nodded and followed Yukari. Flandre followed Reimu, Sakuya and Alice with a bit unsure look on her face but she didn't let it bother her too much. In the end they had much more serious matters on hand currently.

When Yukari, Reimu, Alice, Sakuya and Flandre entered the shrine there was already a full on quarrel going on. Okina and Kasen were really going at each other verbally. Luckily it had not inflated into a fight.

"*Sigh Somehow I'm not surprised," Yukari uttered when she saw Kasen and Okina.

"Those two usually having arguments?" Reimu asked and tilted her head.

"Yep," Yukari simply uttered before taking few steps forward and stomping the ground once. Everyone fell silent and looked at Yukari.

"Now then. Everyone needed seem to be here so let us begin. Please take your seats," Yukari said, looked at everyone and smiled a bit.

"Wait, this is it? I thought we were going to have every sage," Okina said and looked at Yukari with annoyed look on her face.

"You really have to bring this up? Don't be so naive. You know that it is not possible for them to gather us all. But... more about that later," Yukari said and sat down. They all were sitting around the kotatsu of the shrine. That made it easier for everyone to hear each other.

"Okay since we're now here let us hear for what reason we have been summoned," Yukari said and looked at Reimu, Alice, Sakuya and Flandre. They then looked at each other and then stood up. They started to explain everything Koishi had told them earlier. All about Flandre's time traveling, how there now were two Flandres, how that was causing the reailty to fall apart, the entity in the forest that had chaced Marisa, Koishi being able to communicate with her 'other selves' and Koishi recommending them to gather the sages of Gensokyo to help them.

It took them quite while to finish but when they did they just took a deep breath and sat down to their places again. The sages, Ran and the Oni accompanying Kasen then just looked at each other with serious looks on their faces.

"That is rather... interesting to say the least. Kasen? You thinking what I'm thinking?" Yukari then said and looked at Kasen with serious look on her face. Kasen didn't reply, just nodded.

"Well first of all, Flandre, might showing us how you've traveled through time?" Yukari asked and looked at Flandre. Flandre winced a little but then just sighed and dag out the pocket watch.

"I've used this. It allows me to travel to which ever time I desire," Flandre said and then quickly put the watch back to her pocket.

"I see, I see. Well let's start dismantling this case from the very beginning. Flandre traveled through time in her own timeline. That much is true. That traveling caused paradoxes that wore down the fabric of reality. That which Flandre has gone though hasn't happened only once you see. Timelines are actually like loops. They each repeat themselves. Those paradoxes started occuring time and a time again resulting in the breaking of the reality. That being said it is quite possibly the truth that this Flandre's home reality is no more. That's why you're here," Yukari said with serious look on her face. Reimu was lifting her hand to ask question but Yukari continued.

"But the problem comes when we go further than that. You see, it actually isn't Flandre who is breaking through the realities, it is that watch. Flandre and everything that has happened are just those echoes, shards as Koishi said, from the other realities. But the problem is that that watch alone isn't enough to break a whole reality. The other realities were unscafed, free of any paradoxes so that watch should warp the time and space in the ways one can't possibly imagine to shatter realities in one go," Yukari kept explaining.

"What are you getting at?" Okina then asked with a bit doubtful look on her face and her arms akimbo.

"Shhh," Kasen simply sushed and looked at Yukari.

"So in the other words that watch needs a 'boost' each time before it enters the next timeline with Flandre. A super paradox to put it simply. Something that universe can't handle. But that kind of phenomenon doesn't happen naturally in timlines that are still unscafed. So, how can it be that this watch keeps breaking realitieson its own? Hmmm?" Yukari asked and looked each one sitting in the room with her into the eyes.

"The culprit...," Sakuya then uttered with eyes wide open from realization and skin as pale as the clouds in the sky.

"Exactly. There's someone making sure that the watch keeps on going. Someone who is able to create a new paradox each time the watch enters a new reality. Also needles to say that our reality is not the only one going through this at the time. It would be far too slow to progress one reality at the time considering that there are endless amount of them. There are thousends, maybe even millions of Flandres in countless other realities all going through this same line of events although a bit differently than us," Yukari said with dead serious look on her face. She then stopped and looked at the others.

"Me and Kasen have suspected this for a while now. This only confirms it. And if someone is doubting, no, I don't think it is this Flandre's doing. She's just a mere passenger in this chain of events," Yukari added and sighed deeply.

"Ohh-ohohohoo, clever one, clever one. Well done," They then heard being said from the corner of the room. It was Koishi. She was clapping her hands together enthusiasticly and grinning widely with glee.

"Just as I suspected, the sages' gut feeling is unbeatable. I'm impressed to say the least," Koishi enthused and sat next to Reimu.

"So we have you to thank for leading us this far?" Kasen asked and looked at Koishi with suspicious look on her face.

"That's one way of putting it. I have to admit that this has been amusing to watch," Koishi said and chuckled a bit.

"If you can communicate with all of your others selves and supposedly can know anything you desire then why can't you just tell who is behind this all?" Kasen continued with her arms akimbo. She clearly didn't trust Koishi.

"Hm-hm, spoilers," Koishi simply said, shrugged her shoulders and shook her head. Kasen then looked at Okina and Yukari like asking their opinion on the matter.

"Hmmm, the paradox... Could it be that this girl can't tell us anything too specific since it would meddle with the already twisted time continuum?" Okina then asked out loud. They then looked at Koishi who just sat on her place leaning against the kotatsu with her elbows and chuckling with smug look on her face.

"Who knows?" Koishi simply said.

"You're not the most convincing source of information," Yukari said with serious look on her face while staring at Koishi with doubtful look on her face.

"Well one thing I've said is that during times like these you shouldn't trust anyone so easily," Koishi said and kept on grinning.

"But ignoring Koishi for now, why did you bring those Oni with you?" Reimu asked from Kasen while looking at the three Oni accompanying her.

"Well I think it's time to make it public," Kasen said and pulled her double buns from her head revealing her stub of a horns to everyone.

"We've gathered the Big Four of Oni and I'm one of them," Kasen simply said. Reimu and Sakuya just stared at her for a moment while everyone else in the room just waited for them to take this information in. Flandre too had not known this for a certain but she had had her suspicions about Kasen's Onihood.

"B-but why hide this for such a long time?" Reimu asked with confused look on her face.

"Long time? The time we have known each other has been only a fragment of the time I've posed as a hermit. Let's just say that I have my reasons to hide the fact that I'm Oni. I and the humans of the past have... history," Kasen explained with serious look on her face.

"Enough with the reintroductions of self. What is the reason you've gathered this group of violent drunkards again? I thought we were done with them when we got them to move away from the Youkai Mountain," Okina said with unamused tone and look on her face.

"We? It was I who did all the heavy lifting in that. Besides you only wanted us to get out of the way to get your hands onto the Tengu... Which you never did," Kasen said with clearly pissed look on her face.

"Because certain someone decided to stay at the mountain to make sure I couldn't," Okina retorted and glared at Kasen.

"And leaving was the only reasonable course of action at that point. The rules laid down for us were unacceptable by Oni standards," Yuugi added while glaring at Okina.

"Enough, can you tell us the reason you've gathered?" Yukari interrupted them by asking.

"She's not the one who gathered us," Yuugi said simply uttered.

"I don't really care," Okina responded and glared at her.

"*Sigh Anyway, before this assemblage we gathered to discuss this matter with ourselves. We came into the same conclusion as you. That there just has to be someone or something behind all of this. And after thinking about it for a while we also came into a conclusion that the culprit has to be someone from within Gensokyo. The information about that watch just cannot spread to the outside world that easily and besides, do you think that anyone in the outside world would be able to harness enough power to use it like this," Konngara explained with serious look on his face.

"So what you're suggesting?" Alice asked and waited for Konngara to continue.

"But even if that person is from Gensokyo they still wouldn't be stupid enough to stay here. They would be caught too soon if they were to stay here. They are long gone. What we're suggesting is to bring down the barrier," Konngara said without changing the look on his face.

"YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS," Reimu exclaimed with shocked look on her face.

"That barrier is our lifeline," Alice added with as shocked look on her face as on Reimu's.

"Staying within the barrier just makes it so that we will not achieve anything," Suika said with her arms akimbo.

"Impossible. You all know that we cannot do that even if we wanted or tried," Yukari said and shook her head. Reimu could see a hint of disappointment from her face.

"Okina mentioned that the all sages are not present here. Well let me explain that a little further," Yukari started to get everyone's attention.

"There are actually four of us. I, Okina, Kasen and then there's out fourth member. None of us have met the fourth member personally. Communicating with them is difficult, if not impossible. And on top of that their specific location is unknown even to me," Yukari said with serious tone and look on her face.

"Who is this person you're talking about?" Reimu asked with curious tone. She had never heard Yukari mentioning them before this.

"Their name has been lost to the ages. Only thing I can tell about them for certain is that they're the one holding up the barrier around Gensokyo," Yukari said and sighed.

"Wait, I thought it was you who was keeping this place together," Sakuya said with confused look on her face.

"Not entirely false either. I'm maintaining the barriers 'health' should we say, Okina is the guardian of the barrier and Kasen keeps her eye on the things going on within the barrier. I also was the one who constructed the barrier. But am I the one upholding it? No. That's why I cannot bring it down by myself nor would I even do it if I could," Yukari said and looked stricktly at the four Oni sitting in front of her on the other side of the Kotatsu.

"Ah, it seems we have reached the crucial point of this little meeting; what is the next course of action you should take," Koishi said and kept on smiling.

"I-if you'll excuse me I have to go outside for a moment," Flandre then said and stood up. The other just nodded to indicate that she could go. Reimu then happened to glance to the spot next to her and noticed that Koishi had disappeared. It seemed that she wasn't going to tell them what to do next. They were on their own.

Flandre opened the door of the shrine, stepped out and closed it behind herself. She then sat down leaning against the door, took a deep breath and then buried her face into her palms.

"Yuuka...?" Flandre simply uttered while sitting there. She was clueless about what she should do. Other half of her tried to convince to herself that Yuuka couldn't be behind all of this, she just wasn't the type. On the other hand, her other side knew in the light of everything she knew already she would be foolish not to suspect her.

"NGGGAAH," Flandre then shouted, took a pebble from the terrace and threw it as far as she could.

She then felt a someone sitting next to her.

"Having trouble with this thing?" Koishi asked and looked at Flandre, this time with much more serious look on her face.

"I just cannot accept that Yuuka would be behind all of this. She just can't after she helped me so much," Flandre whimpered with frustrated look on her face.

"She might be or she might not be. I cannot tell you that. Only thing I can tell you is to follow your instincts. Do what you feel is right. You're much more clever than you look," Koishi said while looking at clueless Flandre.

"This watch..." Flandre uttered and pulled the watch out from her pocket.

"If this is the cause of everything and the main reason the realities are falling apart then I might as well get rid of it," Flandre groaned while looking at the watch in her hand. She then started squeezing it making it crack and fall apart. She was about to ground it to dust when Koishi suddenly stopped her by grabbing her hand.

"Please, open your palm," Koishi simply uttered and stared Flandre to her eyes. Flandre then opened her hand with a bit surprised look on her face. Koishi then just took the now pretty destroyed looking watch from Flandre's hand. She then dag her pocket for a moment pulling out another watch identical to that of Flandre's but this one was unbroken. She then put it into Flandre's hand and closed it.

"I wouldn't do that. You might not understand it yet but this is needed," Koishi said and put the broken watch to her pocket.

"Needed for what?" Flandre asked with confused tone and look on her face but before she could do anything else Koishi just simply uttered, "Have you checked on Marisa lately? Or might you happen to know who is keeping their eye on Sanae?" After saying this Koishi just disappeared from Flandre's field of view. Flandre just stared blankly at the spot where Koishi had been. She then looked at the watch in her hand that Koishi had given her.

"Marisa...," Flandre simply uttered. She didn't understand what had just happened other than Koishi had asked about Marisa. She had no idea where Koishi had gotten the watch Flandre was now holding. At first she was going to show it to Yukari and the others but then she remembered that the amount of watches capable of time traveling hadn't changed. The one she used to carry broke when she squeezed it. Flandre then put the watch into her pocket and decided to keep the switch that had happened as a secret. In the end Koishi had recommended to not trust anyobody so easily. She was then just about to return inside when she suddenly heard someone approaching. She heard someone landing to the shrine grounds and then running towards the shrine building. Flandre turned around and saw Suwako rushing towards her.

"S-Suwako? What are you doing here during such a time?" Flandre asked without realizing that Suwako wasn't even aware of the events that had gone down in the Scarlet Devil Mansion. That's why the look on Suwako's face switched to surprise when she recognized Flandre but she was in no mood to care about her now. There was something on Suwako's mind that Flandre was completely oblivious of.

Suwako just ran to the shrine's terrace, past Flandre, opened the door and charged inside.

"What the...?" Flandre could just utter before following Suwako.

"Reimu, you here!?" Suwako yelled while rushing into the shrine not knowing that the sages and the Oni had gathered there.

"S-Suwako? What the heck are you doing here?" Reimu asked with surprised tone and look on her face. Suwako then stopped for a moment and looked at everyone in the room with confused and surprised look on her face. She then shook her head and just ignored everyone in ther room with Reimu.

"Reimu this is an emergency! After Sanae returned from the Scarlet Devil Mansion today she complained about a major headache. We gave her the rest of the day off so she could rest. Now something is wrong with her. She started suddenly raving during her sleep. Later she woke up but something had gone into her. She started screaming and shouting incomprehensably upon seeing me and Kanako. Shortly after she started attacking anything on sight," Suwako explained as quickly as she possibly could.

"What!?" Reimu exclaimed with confused look on her face.

"It's true! Every last word! I came here to ask your help! Kanako stayed at the shrine to hold her," Suwako continued. Reimu then looked at the others in the room with her with clueless look on her face like asking for what she should do.

"What ever is happening to her, it cannot be coincidence. We should head to the Moriya shrine immediately," Kasen said with serious tone and look on her face. She then stood up and looked at the others. Everyone seemed to agree. Well all except Okina but she was in no position to protest so she too had to agree.

"Okay, Suwako lead on. We will follow," Yukari said and looked at Suwako. Suwako just nodded and rushed out from the door. Everyone then did as Yukari had said and rushed after Suwako. Everyone except Flandre. She just looked how everyone ran out from the shrine but while doing so grabbed Sakuya from her arm and signed her to wait around for a moment. Sakuya looked at Flandre with confused look on her face but in the end did as Flandre wanted.

They waited until everyone had left. They didn't know if someone had noticed them staying nor did they know if it even mattered. But once Flandre was certain that they were alone she explained to Sakuya why she had asked her to stay.

"Sakuya when I went outside Koishi came there with me. She asked me who was keeping their eye on Sanae just before Suwako arrived," Flandre said with serious look on her face while staring Sakuya into her eyes.

"O-okay? What is the big deal in that? Koishi has been giving us vague hints almost constantly when she has been with us," Sakuya asked with confused tone.

"But that's not all. Koishi also asked if I had been checking on Marisa lately. Sakuya, I believe Marisa might be in danger," Flandre said with concerned tone and look on her face.

"Oh, I can see why," Sakuya said while rubbing her chin and much more serious look on her face.

"We have to make sure she is safe in this instant," Flandre said and headed out.

"I am right behind you," Sakuya said and followed her.

Little did they know that their fear was justified. What they were about to uncover was something quite terrifying on Gensokyo standards but before we can go that far let us take a trip back. In the Scarlet Devil Mansion, just after Flandre had left with Reimu to the Hakurei shrine marisa was sitting in the library in frustration. She felt that she was as strong as ever and that she could easily attend to that assemblage at the shrine but she still had been made to stay there in the library. It was true that she enjoyed her stay there in certain occasions but now when someone was keeping their eye on her constantly she couldn't even lift a book without being seen. On top of that this was Marisa's only chance to actually make sure if the kids she had seen in Alice's basement were real. Now when she was definitely not home she would need to check it no matter what. She was not going to let this opportunity to slip past her fingers. But now the most difficult question she had to answer was, how would she get out of the mansion without being noticed.

Marisa was currently just sitting in front of some random table in the library. She knew that Koakuma was watching her constantly from some balcony or somewhere else.

"How can I slip out from her gaze?" Marisa thought to herself as she tapped the table with her finger with bored look on her face. She then happened to look at Flan who was sitting a little bit away from her doing... well what ever it was she was doing. Lately she had just walked around curiously inspecting objects she could get her hands onto, sometimes stopping to sit down to... play? Marisa wasn't sure what it was that Flan was doing but she still saw that she had just cloned herself. She didn't know why, nor did she care. Maybe she needed a playmate every now and then. However she still remembered that occasion she faced Flan in a battle and that her clones worked semi indipendently. If she could attract the attention of one of the clones she could maybe get it to cause some havoc while still being easy to stop.

"But how should I 'annoy' her?" Marisa thought and rubbed her chin. She then happened to look at the bookshelves that were surrounding Flan.

"Hmm, those might work," Marisa thought to herself and grinned a little. She then stood up and walked a bit closer to one of the bookshelves. She then started to wait for one of Flan's clones to move a bit away from the rest. Once one of them had strayed from the rest Marisa quickly looked around herself to make sure that she wouldn't be noticed sneaking between the bookshelves. She would need only a small gap where no one would be looking at the time. Once she was sure she would be safe she dashed between the bookshelf. There was now only one shelf between her and Flan's clone.

"Okay, if I just push this so that it'll fall on top of that clone it should startle it so that it will cause at least some havoc," Marisa thought and was just about to give the bookshelf a push when she felt a touch on her shoulder.

"And what might you be doing?" Koakuma asked with strict look on her face.

"Wha- Oh, well, you know, trying to pass some time," Marisa said, shrugged her shoulders and tried to act like she was just looking through books in the shelf. Koakuma just looked at Marisa with unconvinced look on her face. Marisa then just a took a random book from the shelf and looked at it.

"That's about the magical properties of wood," Koakuma said with her arms akimbo.

"I can read thank you," Marisa retorted and put the book back to a random place to the shelf. She then walked away from between the shelves leaving Koakuma there.

"Hey, at least put the books back to their correct places," Koakuma yelled after Marisa with annoyed tone and look on her face. Marisa on the other hand didn't show any signs of caring. In fact she had done it on purpose. She was waiting around the end corner of the bookshelf for Koakuma to put the book back to its place.

"Pushing the shelf is not the only way to make it fall," Marisa thought to herself and kicked one of the corner legs of the shelf when Koakuma put the book back to its correct place. Now when Marisa was a vampire something like that wasn't a big deal and Koakuma being on the other side made it so that she wouldn't be suspected at least for a moment.

The corner leg cracked, flew of and the shelf started to tilt over. Now it was time for Marisa to get lost before things would get hot.

"Eh!?" She could hear Koakuma uttering as the shelf started to fall. Flan's clone on the other side of the shelf had noticed this too. Its reaction was exactly what Marisa had expected. The clone stood up immediately, charged its hand and with one majestic punch turned the falling shelf into a rain of splinters leaving behind only a pillar of flame that had left its arm.

"Holy...! I had completely forgotten that that girl truly packs a punch," Marisa thought to herself when she had stopped for a moment to take a look at what had happened. Koakuma just looked at the situation for a moment. Flan's clone didn't seem all that happy about what had happened and Koakuma could clearly see that.

"O-ou," Koakuma simply uttered before taking off so that Flan's clone wouldn't blast her off too. Marisa on the other hand wasn't there to see what happened next for she had just sneaked out from the library and was heading for the main vestibule. She didn't care if some fairy maids saw her or not. They wouldn't dare to try to stop her and by the time the mess in the library would be settled and some of the fairy maids would tell the others that she had escapen she would be already far away.

It didn't took Marisa too long to find her way to the front door since it and the exit of library were quite close to each other and when she did she immediately rushed to the door and took a peek outside. It was dark. The sun had already set and she could see stars in the clear sky.

"Ha! The weather is perfect," Marisa muttered while grinning. She then stepped out and closed the front door of the mansion behind herself. She then looked around herself. Meiling was nowhere to be seen in the garden so she was probably at the front gate.

"Not a big deal, I can just fly over her, there's not much she can do to stop me," Marisa thought to herself and took off from the ground. Her wings hadn't developed far enough so she had to use just basic levitation magic to fly but she was used to that even though flying with broom was her most common way of transportation. In the end it had to suffice for now. Marisa then just took a deep breath and charged towards the Misty Lake that could be seen behind the wall.

A dark stripe could be seen on the sky when Marisa flew across the the garden of the Scarlet Devil Mansion and straight over the lake. It was refreshing to finally get some fresh air too. She had never would have believed that she would grow tired of the dusty air of the library at some point. But having a refreshing evening stroll wasn't what she had in mind. She wanted to get to Alice's house as soon as possible. She needed to know if what she had seen was true.

Marisa flew over the lake and once she had gotten past it she landed. Alice's house wasn't that far away now and if Alice happened to be home, even if it was just the slightest chance she would go unnoticed more likely if she were to go by foot. And so she started to run. She had not yet gotten a chance to test her now new 'self' but the further she got the more she started to realize that she could keep track of her surroundings surprisingly easily. She could swear that she almost smelled every tree and stump before she even saw them in the dark forest. She could hear breathing of a sleeping bird in its nest in a tree, feel how a squirrel ran away ten meters to her left and see how few stars dimmed about 56 decrees behind her.

"Wait what?" Marisa suddenly uttered when she realized that something wasn't right. She stopped running and turned around to see what was blocking the stars. At first Marisa didn't see anything or anyone. She kept standing there. The feeling of being watched kept on growing. Then suddenly a familiar dark figure appeared from between the tree branches. Marisa just watched as it howered above ground in front of her.

"Long time no see. Didn't know you could have a form without your lightning," Marisa said while keeping her eye on the entity. She did not expect a responce from it but she knew that it could understand her, at least to some extend.

"Koishi said you're just a thought that has gotten more powerful by traveling from reality to reality. You haven't found your host yet it seems. So how can you preserve your form without your usual means?" Marisa started talking out loud like trying to get the entity's interest.

"Unless of course... your form isn't tide to your power but rather your host? Who is your host? Who are you?" Marisa then asked with much more serious look on her face. But it seemed that her question fell onto deaf ears since the entity charged at her at that exact moment. Luckily Marisa had expected this and managed to dodge rather easily. But feeling the ground shaking a little and the dirt flying around she could tell that the impact was serious. The entity was now much more substantial than before. Marisa then stood up and turned towards the direction the entity had attacked. She saw it still in the crater it had created with its attack. Marisa then pointed her hands at the entity and launched few projectiles at it expecting it to scatter into the air like the last time she had fought it but this time the entity seemed to just cover itself. Marisa's projectiles hit it but didn't seem to do really anything upon exploding on touch.

"What is it with you? Did you finally unleash your true power or what?" Marisa asked out loud with frustrated look on her face as the entity threw few black and ghostly projectiles from its body at her. Marisa dodged again with ease.

"What has changed? You shouldn't be this durable nor should you have any projectiles at your disposal," Marisa said again like trying to catch its attention again.

"We're out in the forest during a night. There are no lightnings around, yet you can still maintain your form even though you're just a... thought," Marisa said but slowed upon realizing something. The entity charged at her again. Marisa prepared to dodge but this time the entity stopped before it even was on proper range. It stopped right in front of Marisa and tried to grab her but Marisa managed to step back in time.

"You're a thought, you're dependant on your host and you're looking for them. The fact that you're now more concrete than before must mean that we're close to whoever that is," Marisa uttered and looked at the entity.

"Are you trying to play some time here? Are you trying to lure your host here? Well I don't think so," Marisa yelled and tried to run up to the entity to punch it. She was confident in her new physical capabilities as a vampire but was caugth totally by surprise when she went just through the entity upon trying to hit it. After going through it she felt a sharp and powerful hit in the back of her head. The entity had hit her and its hit had been more powerful than she had thought. Marisa was sent flaying to her stomach.

"Damn it," Marisa groaned as she gathered herself from the ground while holding the back of her head. Her ears were ringing from the hit. She then touched the spot where she had been hit and then at her hand. It seemed that she wasn't bleeding but it still hurt like hell. She then turned around to take a look at her foe. The entity was standing just a meter away from her. Marisa was starting to search for her hakkero from her pocket to blast it away for good. But she waited for few moments to see what the entity was up to now. She waited for ten seconds... and then another but once nothing happened Marisa took her hand out of her pocket.

"Well aren't you a curious one," Marisa uttered with unamused look on her face. She was just about to start digging out her hakkero again when she heard something flying above them. Marisa looked up but couldn't see anything because of the trees. The sound stayed there for a moment before some rustling could be heard from the branches and then it became quiet again. Marisa then looked at the entity in front of her again. It was staying put. Marisa then started scanning her surroundings again but what ever it was that had been flying above them for now was hiding itself pretty well. That was until Marisa heard a thump coming from direction of one of the nearby trees. Something had jumped to the ground. Marisa turned towards it and saw a familiar small figuire standing there and watching her and the entity. It was Rumia.

Rumia had shoulder length blonde hair with a red and white charm tied to it. She was wearing a black vest and skirt and white blouse with with red tie bordered by two large red beads around her neck. Rumia was looking at the scene before her eyes with curious look on her face. It seemed that the commotion had caught her attention. She kept tilting her head from side to side while keeping her distance.

"Seems like you've only attracted some vultures with this commotion," Marisa bridled while looking at Rumia. Marisa then turned towards the entity again and it was just in time because when she turned around again the entity had already charged towards Marisa. Marisa had only split second chance to dodge by ducking. Marisa then stood up again and turned around to keep her eye on the entity but when she turned around she was in for a surprise. She saw Rumia still standing where she had stood but now she was holding the entity. It looked like she was dangling it from its collars or something.

"Wait, the attack wasn't aimed at me?" Marisa uttered when she looked how Rumia held the entity without any real problem.

"Is it...? No. No way. Oh no you don't," Marisa continued when she started to realize what the situation was. Marisa then started to run towards Rumia and the entity to stop what ever it was it was planning to do for she didn't want to take any risks. Rumia just looked at Marisa with confused look on her face. It appeared that she wasn't any way aware of what was happening. Marisa readied a simple projectile to knock the entity and Rumia away from each other but the entity was faster. Just when Marisa was on range the entity grabbed the charm on Rumia's head and pulled it off. It was at that moment when Rumia let go of the entity so that it dropped to the ground and slammed the charm to the ground just before Marisa's feet. It created an explosion so powerful that it sent Marisa flying several meters bacwards. She had to cover her eyes because of the bright flash that had accompanied the explosion. She could do nothing to prevent her not so pleasant landing after hitting a tree. After recovering from the impact Marisa stood up immediately to see what had happened. The dust cloud was still shrouding the scene but it was scattering fast. Marisa just looked how a shape of a person started to become distinguishable from the middle of the dust cloud. Once the cloud had scattered enough Marisa could tell for certain that the person in the middle of the cloud was Rumia but there was something wrong with her for certain. Rumia was on the ground keeping herself up with her other arm while holding her head with the other. She was shaking pretty badly. Marisa tried looking around herself but the entity was nowhere to be seen.

"No...," Marisa simply uttered as she looked at Rumia who was shaking on the ground and standing up slowly.

"No, no, no, no, no, you gotta be shitting me," Marisa uttered before Rumii stood up completely, bended backwards and let out a deafening scream. Marisa had to cover her ears because of the sound. She had not heard that scream in a long while and had hoped to never, ever hear it again. Marisa's ears hurt when the scream finally stopped. The scream had actually been so powerful that even Marisa's vision was affected. Marisa then gathered herself when her ears stopped ringing and her vision stopped vibrating. When she was finally able she took a look at Rumia who had just looked like she was really sick. But what she saw made Marisa want to believe that she was hallucinating. Rumia had grown in size, she was now even taller than Marisa. Her hair too had grown in length. She was now exactly how Marisa remembered her from that one certain night. That one night when Reimu's mother died. That night when Rumia killed Reimu's parents. That night when Marisa sealed her.

"You! I destroyed you! You weren't supposed to be problem ever again! HYAAARGH," Marisa yelled at Rumia before running at her. Rumia just looked at Marisa as she run towards her. Marisa then aimed her fist towards Rumia's face. She had wished that the charm she put on Rumia would last forever, that she would never again threaten the life of anyone. If Marisa still had been human she would have been paralyzed from fear. But now when she was no longer human she charged at Rumia wishing to finally take her revenge on her. Marisa was just about to ram her fist into Rumia's face when she grabbed Marisa's fist and stopped it. Marisa the grabbed Rumia with her other arm by her vaist and threw at a nearby tree. Rumia however just dodged the tree in mid air and landed onto her feet. She just glared at Marisa for a moment before she started walking towards her. Marisa charged her hand and started shooting projectiles at Rumia. Rumia just covered her face and let Marisa's projectiles hit her. The explosions created a dust cloud that shrouded Rumia so that Marisa couldn't see her. Then Rumia charged from the middle of the dust cloud. Marisa covered her face but instead of her face Rumia hit her to her stomach. The hit knocked the breath out of Marisa leaving her head exposed. It was then when Rumia hit her head with her other arm. Marisa was knocked out of balance and Rumia continued her attacking by finally kicking Marisa to her chest sending her flying back and leaving a trail to the ground behind herself upon landing. Marisa caughed a few times before standing up from the ground. Marisa then charged both of her hands and started firing beams at Rumia. Rumia was quick to summon a blob of darkness and forming a shield out of it that fully absorbed Marisa's beams upon hitting it. Rumia then again started closing in on Marisa while being protected by her shield. Marisa soon realized that her beams did nothing so she cancelled them and ran straight at Rumia who still had her shield up. Marisa just simply thrust her hand straigth through the shield of darkness to grab Rumia by her head but only thing she felt was Rumia biting two of her fingers off from her left hand.

"AAARGHH," Marisa cried out in pain as she pulled her hand back from the dark. She just held her hand. It was bleeding quite much. Rumia on the other hand now cancelled her shield. She then proceeded to punch Marisa simultaneously with both of her arms to the both sides of Marisa's head. The impact left Marisa a little dizzy which gave Rumia an opportunity to swipe her from her feet. Marisa fell to her back and Rumia was about to hit her to her stomach now when she was defenceless but Marisa managed to roll out of the way in time. Marisa stood up as fast as she could. She then ran at Rumia and grabbed her by her vaist. She lifted her from the ground and then rammed her back into the ground with all the strength she could muster. She was about to hit her to her head when Rumia blasted Marisa to her face with a projectile she had shot from her hand. Marisa was sent flying off from on top of Rumia so she could stand up again. Marisa too gathered herself from the ground while holding her head and reaching for her pocket.

"I'm gonna kill you! YOU HEAR ME!?" Marisa yelled at Rumia after taking out her hakkero. She then aimed it at Rumia with furious look on her face.

"Master SPARK," Marisa yelled from the bottom of her lungs and fired her signature spell. A massive, bright beam that roared louder than an army of tigers. Marisa unleashed the spell's full power at Rumia making it so that she got completely covered by the beam.

"Try getting out from there," Marisa groaned to herself as she kept firing her Master Spark to Rumia's location. She was so sure of her success with that attack that when she saw Rumia's blade being swung at her from the middle of the beam she had no way of dodging it.

"AAHHH," Marisa cried out in pain as Rumia slashed Marisa's left hand where she was holding her hakkero and the hakkero in half. Marisa backed away while holding her hand that had been split wide open all the way to the elbow. As the beam wore off Marisa could see Rumia standing in the middle of a burnt area holding her blade that she apparently had summoned during Marisa's Master Spark. She didn't seem to have taken almost any damage from Marisa's attack what so ever.

"WHY WONT YOU DIE!?" Marisa screamed from the bottom of her lungs while holding her split arm. Rumia then lifted her free arm and pointed it at Marisa. Marisa yelped and prepared to dodge. Rumia then fired a barrage of projectiles at Marisa. She was forced to run and dodge for her life as Rumia decimated her surroundings with her projectiles. Marisa kept running and dodging until she had done a full circle around Rumia. It was then when Rumia stopped and stepped closer to Marisa to stop her from running. Rumia's attacks had lit the surrounding forest to fire. The autumn night made it so that it was too moist for fire to spread but it was still making sure that both of them would stay in the area. Marisa just looked how Rumia aproached her. She then looked to her right, lifted her still undamaged arm and fired a shot at one of the burning trees. Burning splinters flew all over the place as Marisa's projectile hit the tree and made it fall between her and Rumia creating a wall of flames between them. Then Rumia stopped and just stared at Marisa from the other side of the burning tree.

"Twenty years... I lost over twenty years because of you," Rumia uttered while staring at Marisa while pointing her sword at her.

"I'd been fine if it had bee the rest of your life," Marisa responded with hateful look on her face.

"Might have succeeded if it wasn't for that shade. I remember every last moment of that time when that charm was being latched onto me like a parasite. I remember how that shade was calling out to me, calling to finish the job. It was waiting for the right moment to call me in. Back during that night, it brought me great pleasure to kill everyone who had made my life miserable... I intend to finish my job," Rumia continued.

"Not if I exterminate you for once and for all," Marisa growled straight back at Rumia.

"You cannot even scratch me," Rumia hissed and glared at Marisa.

"Give me a reason to try," Marisa retorted and readied herself.

"You may have changed yourself to something else than a human... that will not protect you. I will hunt you down what ever or where ever you are. I'm way out of your league, nothing or no one will save you now," Rumia hissed at Marisa while glaring at her constantly. Marisa just stared back at Rumia with hateful look on her face. It seemed that Rumia was about to attack so Marisa readied herself. But it was then when Marisa heard something from above them. A barrage of bullets being fired at them. Marisa took cover when she heard the bullets approaching. She covered her head and dashed to the ground. She heard and felt the bullets hitting the ground and exploding on impact. She then felt smeone grabbing her arm and lifting her from the ground.

"Get out of here, you fool! Run! Your house, we'll meet you there," She heard someone yelling at her and pushing her to move. Marisa had no time to make sure who it was. The bullets they had fired had blasted the fire partially away which gave Marisa an opening to run away. She hated that she would have to run away from Rumia again but she knew that currently there was nothing she could do.

"What are you still doing here!? Move," The voice yelled again after Marisa hesitated for a moment. Marisa then finally obeyed the voice and got moving. She ran through the opening in the fire and into the forest. The voice had said that they would meet at Marisa's house. Marisa had had other plans for this night in her mind but after she took a look at her arm she knew that going to Alice's house was out of question now. She headed for her own house while hearing few explosions from behind her and Rumia's screams. Whoever had come to save her was really giving a fair beating to Rumia. Then the voices behind her fell silent. The battle seemed to be over. Marisa stopped and looked behind herself. She was already too far away to see even a glimpse of the fire that was burning around the area she had been caught up in. At first Marisa thought about returning and checking the situation but after she heard a someone flying over her towards her house she figured that her savior had gotten away and it was because of the fleeing the battle had ended. Rumia was still out there, there was no way she would be defeated so easily. Marisa then just turned to the direction of her house and continued running.

Marisa's arm hurt like hell. She wasn't bleeding that badly because she was a vampire and it had started to heal slowly but when one's arm is split wide open all the way to the elbow it can be expected to hurt. Marisa had not seen her savior since she heard them fleeing but she was assuming that she would find that person from her house. The journey to her house wasn't that long and she could feel her arm already reforming when she finally reached her yard from the forest. She looked around herself. There was no signs of anyone in the vicinity of her but she still had to keep her guard up. She couldn't be sure if Rumia was currently tracking her down. She then looked at her house. There was light coming from the windows.

"Seems like someone's home. I'm assuming that whoever's inside they're waiting for me," Marisa thought to herself and started walking towards her house. She walked across the yard and to her terrace. She then reached for the door knob but before she could touch it she heard the same voice that she had heard in the forest.

"Finally got home," Marisa heard being said next to her. She then looked at where the voice had come from and saw a preson stepping out from the shadow. Marisa wasn't going to believe her eyes. From the shadow stepped forward a perfect copy of her. Well perfect to an extend. The Marisa that stepped from the shadown clearly wasn't a vampire.

"I heard the commotion from the forest. I decided to check the situation and when I saw what was happening I knew you had gotten yourself in trouble," The other Marisa said and looked at Marisa with her arms on her vaist.

"Impossible...," Marisa uttered while looking at her doppelganger.

"Not quite. There are two Flandres so why there can't be two of me?" The other Marisa asked and shrugged her shoulders.

"There are two of me...?" Marisa uttered and took a step backwards from her doppelganger.

"Well two is an understatement," The other Marisa then said and scratched her hair.

"What do you mean?" Marisa asked and looked at her doppelganger with suspicious look on her face.

"See for yourself," The other Marisa said, opened the door to Marisa's house and stepped in. Marisa then followed her and once inside she couldn't be sure if she was dreaming or awake. Her house was full of copies of herself. There were dozens of Marisas all over the place. Marisa could just stand there in the door frame and look at the situation with gaping mouth.

"B- w- h- How?" Marisa could utter with shocked tone and look on her face. She had never could have believe that she would witness something like this. The other Marisas seemed to be fully aware of each others' presence. It was like they were used to this. Her own presence didn't seem to attract any attention at all. Or at least any more than the rest of their presence.

"This is starting to become quite regular. Look at each of them. They all come from their own respective time line. Though all of our original time lines are long gone. We just happened to appear here now when this time line is starting to crumble. It just is what happens. I admit that it was a shock to me as well when it happened in my time line," Marisa's doppelganger explained and shrugged her shoulders.

"There are Marisas mostly from nearby time lines, you know, from the ones in which the alternatives aren't that drastic," Marisa's doppelganger continued.

"F- How long have you been like this? I mean, without real home?" Marisa then asked with still unbelieving look on her face.

"Oh, I was caught up in this just recently. For me it happened pretty much without warning. I was actually just eating my evening meal. Were the rice crackers and tea good? You remember them, don't you? They ended up here if I'm not mistaken," Marisa's doppelganger said and cracked a cunning grin. Marisa indeed remembered. The mysterious meal that had appeared onto her table that one evening.

"Bu- How did it exactly happen. How did your reality fall apart?" Marisa asked with curious and clueless look on her face.

"That's a pretty problematic question. On the other hand I remember when it happened. But on the other hand it is all blurry. I believe I was absorbed in thought while I was eating. The next thing I remember is that I stand up and take a look outside. I was no longer in the Forest of Magic. It is hard to describe. The place where I was was dream-like. I-It was warped in a way I couldn't comprehend. The next thing I realize was that I was here. That happened again when I was absorbed in thought. Did it happen by accident or do I just lose my train of thought when it happens, I'm uncertain," Marisa's doppelganger responded.

"And everyone one of these... people have met the same fate?" Marisa asked just to make sure. She wasn't sure if she should believe anything right now.

"Yeah, pretty much. Everyone here is you, remember that. We wont cause you trouble. Actually we might be of use to you. So please try to tolerate our presence in you house. It technically is our house too," Marisa's doppelganger said and then left Marisa to talk with other Marisas. Marisa then just backed away a few steps and then sat down to her couch while holding her head. This was so much to take in all at once. Marisa then stood up from the couch once she thought of one problematic thing that had reached her mind. She walked up to the same doppelganger that had led saved her from Rumia.

"If you don't mind I have one more question," Marisa asked from the other Marisa who had been talking with another doppelganger out of many who were in the house with them.

"Sure whatever you want to know," The other Marisa replied and shrugged her shoulders.

"Thanks. So wont your prescence cause problems? What if someone walks into my house and finds you?" Marisa asked with worried look on her face.

"Oh it wont be a problem. You see, we can see and interract with each other because we're the same person but we cannot interract or be interracted by the people you see. That's because we're from different realities and don't have any kind of connection to each other like you and I have. That being said I can only see and interract with, let's say Alice of my own reality," The other Marisa responded and looked at the other Marisas in the room.

"Then how were you able to save me from Rumia? That goes against of what you just said," Marisa said with confused look on her face.

"That's right but she's a special case. The thing you have believed to be a thought is actually her separate consciousness. It is not just a thought. Of course, since she is Rumia there was only single thought in her mind; to kill you. I believe it has been already explained to you how that entity got more powerful as it has traveled through innumerable realities. Well in simplicity it meant that Rumia's consciousness just collected itself from each reality it visited gaining the ability to see and interract with everyone from every time line. In the other words she absorbed her own time line," The other Marisa explained with serious look on her face.

"I- isn't that dangerous for all of us? If she can see all of you shouldn't we team up and take her down together?" Marisa asked with a bit shocked tone.

"Yeah, about that. We've already accepted the fact that it is not possible and have decided to just live with the fact. The fact that she has absorbed her own time line means that she has stored every single one of her other selves within her. If you by some means manage to land a killing blow onto her she'll just regenerate a new body. And trust me, she has many in store. Once I learned about that I accepted it and realized that running away was the only way of survival," The other Marisa explained and sighed a little.

"How can you say that!? Accepting your defeat is the only way you can lose. You were there that night, you saw what Rumia did. How can you accept that," Marisa exclaimed. She wasn't going to believe that she had just heard herself say that.

"Look, I understand how you feel but accepting the facts is the only thing we can do. It may not seem like it but we've actually tried what you suggested many times but it only resulted in many of us dying. In the end none of us want that. If you want to challenge Rumia one final time that's your choice but at least let us enjoy the last days we can," The other Marisa said and looked with almost pleading look on her face into Marisa's eyes.

"Last days?" Marisa asked with confused look on her face and tilted her head.

"Yeah. Do you think the universe can take much more of this? It'll break and once that happens there wont be anymore Rumia, you or me," The other Marisa said with melnacholic tone and look on her face. Marisa just looked at her doppelganger and then at the rest of them. They looked back at her and Marisa could clearly tell that they had already given up.

"Fine, if you want to rot here you do that. I still have fighting spirit left and I intend to use that," Marisa said with a bit pissed tone and look on her face before turning away and walking towards the door.

"About what you asked earlier. How could I say that. I could because I did that which you didn't, killed Reimu. I did that in my time line, not Rumia," The other Marisa said and looked at Marisa with compassionate look on her face. Marisa just glared back at her, stepped out and slammed the door shut behind herself.

"I didn't know that I was so spineless. I don't care if they have given up, I've survived well enough to this point alone, I'll survive in the future as well. I have to head for the shrine and warn the others about Rumia. I may have survived but not won. I need help, I cannot take her down alone," Marisa said and took off towards the shrine. She looked at her arm. It had started to heal. The wound has already closed but it was still a bit deformed from the blow Rumia had landed. Her arm was however the least of her worries. Marisa had to keep her eye on her surroundings constantly. She didn't want to be attacked without her knowing. She knew that Rumia could technically be hiding anywhere. But even so Marisa flew across the Forest of Magic. Anyone could have seen her so it was great surprise for her when her flight went completely unbothered. Maybe Rumia was just following her or maybe she had actually managed to get to the shrine without Rumia seeing her. Marisa really didn't care which way it was. She just wanted to warn the others about Rumia. Upon landing to the shrine grounds she just ran straight at the shrine building but stopped in the middle of the road. The scenery looked awfully familiar to her. Night time at the shrine while Rumia was roaming free wasn't exactly the most pleasant thing Marisa could think of. Marisa then started walking towards the shrine while constantly looking around herself.

"Awfully quiet...," Marisa muttered to herself while approaching the main door of the shrine. She then stepped onto the terrace and looked around herself one more time before pulling the door open and stepping in.

"Reimu, we have and emer... gency?" Marisa started but stopped after she realized that the shrine was empty. The lights were still on but no one seemed to be home.

"Empty... Where did they go?" Marisa muttered as she walked around the kotatsu and looked around herself. It certainly seemed that there had been several people in the shrine but they had all left. She then decided to check the shrine's surroundings just to make sure. She walked to the back of the shrine and walked through the back door. Behind that door opened the backyard of the shrine. Her eyes however were glued onto one curious detail she saw.

"A grave stone? Since when has there been a grave yard at the shrine?" Marisa asked out loud with confused look on her face while looking at the curious grave stone in the middle of the backyard of the shrine. She then walked closer to it to take a look at it. The last time she had visited the shrine there had been no grave stone. Besides the stone looked like it had been there for a while since there were no signs of any digging. She then kneeled in front of the stone to take a look at whose name was written on it but when she saw the name her heart skipped a beat.

"Kirisame Marisa...," Marisa uttered out loud while looking at her name on the stone. She then stood up and took a step backwards.

"There were dozens of doppelgangers back at my house. Gods know how many are roaming around Gensokyo right now. Guess all of them haven't been that lucky in their own time lines," Marisa said and gulped. On the grave stone there was no date of birth or death. Just the stone and the name.

"I wonder if there actually is a body down there," Marisa wondered out loud nervously and looked at the ground around the stone.

"I'm not sure, I haven't checked since I arrived," Marisa then heard someone saying just in front of her. She lifted her gaze from the ground and looked in front of her. Before her eyes, on top of the grave stone was sitting yet another clone of herself. This one however was different. She was spectral like and Marisa could see through her.

"Y-you are...," Marisa opened her mouth but the spectral marisa interrupted her before she could finish, "A ghost. Yes. I've been like this for quite some time already," The spectral marisa responded like it was not a big deal.

"How did you end up like this?" Marisa asked with a bit shocked and confused look on her face.

"Well, that was quite while ago. Have you had the event where you went to the Scarlet Devil Mansion after the red mist incident and met Flandre?" The spectral Marisa asked after thinking about it for a brief moment.

"Uhhh, yeah?" Marisa responded with a bit confused look on her face.

"Well that's where I died. I lost, you see," The spectral Marisa said and shrugged her shoulders.

"You were killed by Flandre?" Marisa asked with surprised tone and look on her face. She then backed away one step.

"Yeah, though I'm not angry. She did it to save everyone else. I was, you see, going to end up causing quite lot of trouble. I was going to be turned into a vampire. She killed me to prevent that from happening," The spectral marisa said and looked at still a bit frightened Marisa.

"How? I'm confused. You were _going to_? That doesn't make any sense? How could she have known what was going to happen?" Marisa asked in confusion.

"It's complicated. But the best way to explain it is to tell you that I'm the first of the doppelgangers you've seen so far. I've been traveling for so long already. I come from the very first time line that was broken. From the same where the Flandre you're already familiar with came from, though she hasn't lived through the events where she killed me. It is complicated, I know," The spectral marisa said and shook her head.

"Wait. You're not saying that the Flandre that appeared into this world...," Marisa started with unbelieving look on her face.

"Killed me? Yeah. Though I don't carry a grudge towards her. She did what was best for everyone. After the reality from which I came from fell apart I saw everything what was going to happen if she hadn't killed me. By the way, how is she doing currently?" The spectral Marisa asked after explaining everything as well as she could. Marisa was still completely baffled by everything her ghostly doppelganger had just told her.

"I have no idea. I was actually just looking for her, Reimu and everyone else who had been here," Marisa responded with unsure tone and look on her face.

"I see. Well best if you don't say hello to her for me. She migth get confused," The spectral Marisa responded and grinned a little.

"Okay, but I have a question for you. Why are you here? I mean you're dead, but what are you still doing in the world of the living?" Marisa asked with confused look on her face.

"Well the answer is as simple as wanting to look after the people I cared about. If I had gone to the Nether World and reincarnated later I would never have seen Reimu or anyone else again. I refused afterlife and reincarnation just to stay here," The spectral Marisa responded and sighed a little.

"But what about when the people you cared about die and go to the afterlife or to reincarnation or whatever? You'll stay here and then wont be able to see them again," Marisa said with a bit surprised tone.

"That's the prize I was willing to pay. If I could stay here and be with them for few more years or decades then I that's good enough for me," The spectral Marisa responded with a bit sad tone and look on her face.

"I assume you haven't seen Reimu or anyone else for a while now. You've been traveling from reality to reality and have been only able to see me and Flandre because we're the only ones who have connection to you?" Marisa asked carefully.

"Yes...," The spectral Marisa responded and looked down.

"I- I'm sorry to hear that," Marisa responded and tried to touch her ghostly doppelganger but her hand went straight through her.

"No, don't be. At least I can be glad to know that you're still taking care of them," The spectral Marisa said and smiled a bit to Marisa.

"I'm not doing very good job in that. Rumia has broken free. I need to warn them about her," Marisa said with not so amused tone and look on her face.

"Rumia... Hmmmm. If I've learned anything from my recent experiences within every other time line then I'd suggest you to go to the Scarlet Devil Mansion. The things will be getting hot in there quite soon," The spectral Marisa responded with serious look on her face.

"The Scarlet Devil Mansion. What's going to happen there?" Marisa asked with confused tone and look on her face.

"You will find out soon enough. The time has come for _**that**_ to happen," The spectral Marisa simply responded with serious look on her face.

"What!? What is going to happen!?" Marisa then exclaimed and looked at her spectral doppelganger but she just saw how she faded from her field of view.

"Hurry," She simply uttered before vanishing completely. Marisa just stared blankly at the grave stone where her ghostly doppelganger had sat.

"Why is everyone so gods damn vague? What is going to happen at the Scarlet Devil Mansion?" Marisa asked out loud but didn't get a response. She wasn't actually even expecting one although it would have been helpful for her to get some more information than just some vague hints about what was going to happen and where she needed to be. But despite all that Marisa decided to obey and go back to the mansion. In the end it was technically she herself who had told her that and she couldn't come up with any possible reason why she would lie to herself.

"The Scarlet Devil Mansion... what ever is going on I apparently have to be there. Wait... Rumia... Is she implying that Rumia could be somehow behind of what has happened recently. It can't be although... she would technically have a motive... revenge," Marisa then muttered to herself and took off from the ground and towards the mansion.

A little bit before Marisa reached the shrine and found her spectral doppelganger Flandre and Sakuya arrived at the mansion. They had no idea that Marisa had escaped in hopes of reaching Alice's house. They also had no idea what had happened between Rumia and Marisa. They still thought that Marisa was in the mansion. So when they landed in front of the main gate they had no idea what was going on.

"Strange, shouldn't Meiling be here?" Flandre asked and pointed at the empty guard post where Meiling usually was.

"Yes, she should. She better have a good reason for not being where she should be," Sakuya said with serious look on her face before walking up to the gates and opening them.

"So if what Koishi told you was the truth then something should be going on with Marisa?" Sakuya then asked as they walked through the gates and garden towards the main door of the mansion.

"Yes, that's what she told me. Although she wasn't being specific. She just asked if I had checked on Marisa lately. How else would you interpret that other than assuming she's in danger?" Flandre asked with concerned look on her face. She was clearly worried.

"I do not know. It just seems quite unlikely for me that something would be going on with Marisa. In the end she is safely within the library," Sakuya uttered with thoughtful look on her face as they reached the front door of the mansion and opened it. Upon entering the mansion they were met with a strange sight. Meiling was standing there with Youmu, as though they were waiting for something. Remilia on the other hand was standing on an upper loft just looking down at the scenery.

"Milady, may I ask what is going on over here. Why are you all gathered here?" Sakuya asked and bowed at her mistress.

"There was quite a commotion at the library. Marisa pulled off a stunt that managed to annoy one of Flan's clones enough that it went on a rampage. In the mids of the chaos Marisa managed to slip out. We managed to dispose of my sister's clone and took her to the basement to cool off," Remilia responded with serious look on her face.

"What!? You took her back to the basement? Are you insane? That place will only drive her further into madness," Flandre retorted with a bit shocked look on her face.

"Don't misunderstand. We didn't lock her there. We just brought her there and left. She isn't locked anywhere," Remilia said and looked at Flandre with cold look on her face. Flandre just groaned a little with her arms akimbo.

"So what is she doing here?" Sakuya asked and looked at Youmu.

"Well, as I said Flan's clone caused a quite bit of havoc. We needed Meiling too to take it down. It seems that meanwhile she snuck in. We found her here from the vestibule. She asked to meet you specifically. She asked for a duel," Remilia said and looked at them with a bit amused look on her face for a change.

"Sis, you're the mistress of this mansion. Surely you can just kick her out. There's no time for any silly duels," Flandre said with annoyed tone while looking at Remilia.

"You're not my sister. You just look like her and have her name. For me you mean as much as that thieving black and white rat or anyone else outside the mansion. Although you're right about one thing. I am the mistress of this mansion and while I can prevent from any kind of duel happening I can also allow that to happen," Remilia said and grinned a little. Flandre just stared at her and clenched her teeth together in irritation.

"And thus, I accept Youmu's request for a duel with my head maid. Should be fun to watch," Remilia said and leaned against the wooden fence with her elbows.

"With all due respect milady, I do not think that we should agree to anything she proposes. She has been only a hindrance for our investigation so far," Sakuya said with humble tone and bowed at Remilia again.

"I have spoke," Remilia simply uttered and stared at them. Sakuya just sighed and nodded at Remilia. She then lifted her gaze from the ground and glared at Youmu. Youmu then stepped forward and looked at Sakuya.

"You really do not have any better thing to do than to hinder us?" Sakuya asked with annoyed tone and look on her face.

"Hinder? I think we both know that I have every single reason to suspect that you're the one behind all of the resent events that have _hindered_ Gensokyo. I have spied on you all, I know everything you know. It is obvious," Youmu said and glared at Sakuya.

"Okay, let us hear what you have to say before I slice you open," Sakuya said and stared at Youmu with dead serious look on her face.

"First of all, I don't suspect your mistress or anyone else in this mansion. Only you. You're the time manipulator, everyone knows that. I don't know what is the true extend of your powers but I'm sure gonna find out. Second, you wouldn't drag your mistress into this. You respect her too much. You want to make sure she isn't on the suspection list so you act on your own. Third, you're the only human who can enter the human village and leave it without leaving a trace behind yourself. You're the one who is responsible for the kids disappearing. I don't know what you're planning to do with them. If you're gonna prepare them for your mistresses or are you just gonna drain them dry. Only thing I know is that I'm gonna put a stop to this for once and for all," Youmu said while looking at Sakuya and drawing out her swords.

"Don't be ridiculous. You are only focusing to everything that I could get done. You are right about me and my mistress. I would never drag her into something like that but can you explain how I could do everything else that has happened to Gensokyo recently, like the entity in the forest," Sakuya retorted with almost angry tone.

"I don't need to, you have all the time in the world," Youmu said and kept glaring at Sakuya.

"It seems rational speech doesn't get through your skull so I may have to force it into it," Sakuya retorted and took out two of her knives. Flandre just looked at them and backed away few steps so she wouldn't get in the way.

"A fight to the death?" Sakuya asked just to make sure while pointing the knife in her right hand at Youmu.

"A fight to the death," Youmu simply responded before lunging herself towards Sakuya with incredible speed. Sakuya on the other hand didn't move. She stood there unmoving until Youmu was on touching distance. It was when Youmu's katana was just about to hit her when she suddenly vanished and reappeared behind Youmu. Youmu was expecting this and had her short sword ready to block Sakuya's attack from behind. After managing to block Sakuya Youmu turned around and tried to hit Sakuya with her katana again. This time Sakuya ducked under Youmu's attack and tried to slice Youmu's chest when she had missed her own attack. Youmu however managed to roll out of the way. But when she stood up again and turned towards Sakuya she was already gone. Youmu then turned around and saw a volley of knives flying at her from above her. Youmu jumped out of the way only to find Sakuya standing right where she was about to land. Youmu quickly covered herself with her sword but Sakuya managed to slice Youmu's side even though just a little. Youmu landed and backed away from Sakuya while holding her side. Sakuya just flipped a knife in her hand once and dashed at Youmu. It seemed like an awfully obvious attack so instead of blocking Youmu took her katana and spinned around only to find Sakuya behind her blocking her katana with her knives. The two had a brief eye contact before Youmu saw Sakuya dropping one of her knives to her left hand that was still free. Youmu acted immediately and dashed to her left to dodge Sakuya's upper cut. She then managed to kick Sakuya to the back of her knee knocking her to her back. Youmu immediately used this to her advantage and tried to strike Sakuya by stabbing her with her short sword. Sakuya managed to roll out of the way but not without getting a slight hit to her shoulder. She then jumped up and turned towards Youmu. The two just stared at each other. It was the first break in their otherwise fast paced fight. Youmu then seathed her short sword and grabbed her katan with her both hands. She then ran up to Sakuya and started to throw a series of fast but precise attacks. Sakuya dodged each attack but was forced to back away on each dodge. After seventh strike Sakuya had to take a look behind herself to see if she was being forced against a wall. And she was. The moment she looked behind herself her back hit the wall. She then immediately looked back at Youmu who was swinging her eighth attack at her. Sakuya had no other option but to block it with her knives. Sakuya took one in both of her hands and tried to block Youmu's attack but her blade cut its way straight through Sakuya's knives although it slightly missed Sakuya herself. After cutting Sakuya's knives away Youmu turned her gaze towards Sakuya and then pointed her sword at her throat but stopped before Sakuya's skin and the blade touched. She glared at Sakuya for a moment. Sakuya then just sighed and lifted her arms beside her head. Youmu looked at her for another moment. It almost looked like Sakuya was about to surrender. This made Youmu hesitate for a moment and Sakuya used this moment to grab Youmu's sword with her bare hand, moving it away and then kicking Youmu to her stomach. With her left hand Sakuya managed to grab the scabbard of Youmu's short sword and pull it off from her belt. Sakuya unseathed the sword and took a new fighting stance with her new weapon while Youmu was still recovering from the kick. Sakuya was bleeding from her palm because she had grabbed the blade of Youmu's sword without protection but she didn't seem to care.

After Youmu had recovered from the kick she had received to her stomach she had to lift her blade for Sakuya was already going for an attack. Sakuya first launched two swings at Youmu both of which she blocked with rather ease. On the third strike she hit Youmu's katana on purpose and moved it out of the way. This gave Sakuya an opening that she used to tackle Youmu to her chest with her shoulder. This forced Youmu to back away and hit the wall behind her with her back. Youmu groaned a bit after the impact but she had no time to rest for Sakuya was charging towards Youmu. Sakuya was helding the sword horizontally while holding the hilt with her right hand and the blade with her left hand. The attack was clearly aimed at Youmu's throat. Youmu tried to block the attack but because her katana was longer than the short sword that Sakuya was holding from both ends and Youmu hadn't had time to take a better grip from the katana Sakuya managed to break through Youmu's block and bring the blade all the way up to Youmu's throat. The two glared at each other for a brief moment, The short sword and the skin of Youmu's throat were basically touching each other but before anything else could happen they heard a familiar voice from behind themselves.

"Someone, come quickly, something's wrong with lady Patchouli," They heard Koakuma's voice coming from the door that led to the library. Everyone looked at Koakuma with surprised looks on their faces. After a brief moment Sakuya looked back at Youmu and hissed, "I have nothing to do with any of this." She then backed away from her and dropped Youmu's short sword to her feet. Youmu just held her throat for a moment before picking up her sword and seathing it. Meiling, Flandre and Sakuya then ran up to Koakuma to hear what was going on.

"What is happening Koa? What is wrong with Patchouli?" Meiling yelled while running towards Koakuma.

"I don't know. We were cleaning the library with the fairy maids when Patchouli started behaving strangely. At first she seemed to talk to herself. But soon it became clear to us that she seemed to be talking to someone else. I couldn't see anyone there though. Upon asking what was happening Patchouli seemed almost startled. She backed away from me and the fairy maids with almost manic look on her face. Soon after she started yelling something like 'get away from me' or 'cannot be real, cannot be real'. After that she started attacking us randomly. It seemed that the attacks weren't aimed at us directly although some of them almost hit," Koakuma explained with clueless tone and look on her face.

"Patchouli... We need to go there and get her back to her senses," Sakuya said and ran into the corridor leading to the library with Meiling. Remilia was watching all of this from the loft. She then jumped and floated down to the floor level.

"I'm gonna go with them," Remilia said and flew after them. Flandre on the other hand was just standing on her place with worried and thoughtful look on her face.

"Koakuma, have you seen Marisa?" She then asked from Koakuma who had stayed behind.

"Not after she ran away. I don't know why she did that but after that I haven't seen or heard anything about her. Why? Is something wrong?" Koakuma asked and looked at worried Flandre.

"Might be. Koishi hinted that Marisa might be in danger," Flandre said to Koakuma.

"If that's the case then I'd suggest you to look for her from the outside. I'll stay here and try to help the others. Let's hope the things don't get out of hand with Patchouli," Koakuma said while rubbing her chin. Flandre then just nodded at Koakuma and started running towards the main doors.

"I'll come with you," Youmu yelled after Flandre and ran after her. She had picked up her swords and had listened to their conversation. Flandre just glanced at Youmu and nodded before pushing the doors open.

About kilometer away from the mansion Marisa was flying over the lake. She was headed towards the mansion not knowing what was going on over there. The words of her ghostly doppelganger were still fresh in her mind. She had been told to hurry and that what she had decided to do. She had actually been so careless that she hadn't bother to make sure that she wasn't followed. And this time she really should have. Marisa was right above the Misty Lake and the mansion was already looming in the distance when she saw something beneath her. A dark figure right below her near the surface of the lake. Marisa didn't need to think for long until she realized who it was. Partially because as soon as she saw the figure it dashed up and tackled Marisa from below. Marisa could clearly see Rumia's face up close as she tackled her. Marisa had hard time trying to stay in the air. Rumia had hit her quite hard so falling into the lake was Marisa's biggest worry for now.

"Damn, the moment I lay down my guard she's after me," Marisa groaned after she had recovered herself from the impact. She then looked behind herself and saw Rumia chacing her. She then looked at her left arm and saw that it was mostly healed.

"Okay, it is round two," Marisa thought to herself with determined look on her face. She then turned around and started flying bacwards while starting shoot a barrage of bullets at Rumia. Rumia dodged the shots Marisa fired at her at first but after Marisa started gaining distance to her because she had to dodge her shots Rumia just covered her face and rammed through Marisa's projectiles. When Marisa saw what Rumia was doing she focused all the bullets at Rumia. Since she wasn't going to dodge Marisa wasn't going to bother to fire anywhere else other than at Rumia.

Marisa kept flying towards the mansion. A trail of explosions was following right behind her as Rumia rammed herself through Marisa's bullets. Marisa managed to slow Rumia down just enough that they were moving at the same speeds. Marisa was just about to reach the shore and the safety from falling down to the lake. As a vampire that wouldn't have been healthy for her and she knew it. Marisa decided to add a little more power to her attacks just to make sure she could keep Rumia at bay. It was only couple hundred meters to the shore when Marisa finally saw Rumia falling back. She saw clearly that she had started to slow down and few seconds after she saw Rumia falling down towards the lake. A brief splash followed after Rumia hit the surface of the lake and sank below it. Marisa knew that that wouldn't take Rumia down entirely but at least she had managed to stop her for now.

"It seems even the thoughest can be knocked out," Marisa thought to herself with serious look on her face and breathing heavily while watching the ripples at the surface of the lake that had been caused by Rumia falling to the lake. Upon reaching the shore Marisa immediately ran to the gates of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. She too was a bit confused when she didn't see Meiling standing nor sleeping at her usual guard post. The gates were also open.

"That is... rather unusual," Marisa mumbled between her breaths before walking through the gates at fast pace only to find Flandre and Youmu rushing through the door on the other side of the garden.

"Hey," Marisa yelled and waved her hand. They seemed to notice her since Flandre pointed at her and said something to Youmu. They then seemed to rush towards her.

"Okay, something's definitely up," Marisa muttered and ran at them. When they finally met she could see that Youmu had taken a beating recently. Flandre on the other hand seemed to be fine. She however didn't let this distract her. Something was going on in the Scarlet Devil Mansion and it was only matter of time until Rumia would recover.

"Marisa, I-," Flandre started as she ran towards Marisa but she was interrupted by her, "I have some really serious news! But what is going on here? Where are the rest of the people who were at the shrine?" Flandre then slowed down before she and Marisa met. Her face switched from a bit delighted to a bit melancholic before it switched to seriousness.

"They headed to the Moriya shrine. Suwako came and told us that something was wrong with Sanae. Me and Sakuya came back to the mansion after Koishi told me... to take a look at it," Flandre said and looked at Marisa with now again melancholic look on her face.

"Why were you running out from the mansion? Has something happened?" Marisa continued with worried look on her face.

"We were heading out to look for you but it seems you came back already. But back at the mansion? Something has gone into Patchouli. Koakuma charged in in the midst of the duel between me and Sakuya. She yelled something about Patchouli attacking everyone at random," Youmu explained hastily.

"A duel between you and Sakuya? Why in the world?" Marisa asked with confused and a bit shocked look on her face.

"That's beside the point. Where have you been and why did you return so suddenly?" Youmu asked with strict tone and look on her face. It was then when they heard a loud splash from behind the gates. They turned to look and saw a hude gush of water flying upwards and Rumia flying out from the lake.

"That about answers to the other question," Marisa said and took a step backwards.

"Who is that!?" Youmu then asked with a bit shocked look on her face while pointing at Rumia.

"Don't you recognize our old friend? That's Rumia and she seems to be a bit cranky," Marisa said and gulped a little.

"What is she doing here? And why does she look so.. different? Adult-like?" Flandre asked with surprised look on her face while looking at Rumia who was glaring at them while being soaking wet.

"That is a long story. In short, it turned out that the 'entity' was actually Rumia's consciousness and Rumia was the host it was looking for. It lured me into a trap and released Rumia from the charm on her head while I was around," Marisa explained while starting to breath heavily.

"Wait, wait wait. What charm? What are you on about? Why is she after you?" Flandre asked with confused look on her face.

"No time to explain. If we get out from this alive I might just tell you but now help me take her down," Marisa almost yelled. Flandre could see that Marisa seemed a bit desperate for some reason. Youmu and Flandre then looked at each other and nodded.

"Here she comes," Marisa yelled as Rumia launched herself at Marisa, Youmu and Flandre at incredible speed. She basically tore herself through the half open gate and flew through the air while aiming herself at Marisa, Youmu and Flandre. They managed to dodge just in time before Rumia slammed her fist to the spot where they had just stood. Pieces of stone and dirt were flying all across the garden as Rumia punched the ground. Marisa Youmu and Flandre had jumped away just in time and were now surrounding Rumia while keeping their eye on her constantly.

"Your friends let you down the last time... The history has a bad habit of repeating itself," Rumia growled menecingly while looking at Marisa and the others. She then summoned her sword and immediately span towards Marisa. Marisa jumped out of the way and tried to blast Rumia from the mid air but Rumia simply just covered the back of her head with her arm.

"Damn. She regenerated all the damage I dealt while we were above the lake. It is like she never even was hit by my projectiles," Marisa thought to herself after landing. Rumia then turned around and swang her sword towards them. She was however too far away to hit any of them but her attack wasn't meant to be hitting anyone. She stopped her sword when it was pointing at them and then unleashed a blue beam from its tip. Marisa, Youmu and Flandre once again managed to dodge but this time it wasn't as easy as the last time. Rumia looked around herself as the smoke cleared and from the middle of the dust cloud she saw someone running at her. She then readied her blade and swang it at the figure running at her. At that moment Youmu jumped out from the dust cloud. It seemed she wasn't even going to dodge the blade but when the blade touched her it went just straight through her without damaging her.

"This is one of the perks in being a half phantom," Youmu yelled and regained her physical form, pulled a sword from her back and swang it straight at Rumia's right arm where she was holding her black, shadowy blade. Youmu's attack cut clean through Rumia's arm and Youmu saw it falling to the ground. She smirked as it touched the ground but when she lifted her gaze from Rumia's severed arm back to Rumia she was met with a shocking sight. Rumia was standing there, still holding the blade in her arm that was still attached to her body. Youmu then looked at the arm on the ground. It was still there.

"Impossible. I cut it off. How can it still be intact!?" Youmu yelled and took a step backwards with shocked look on her face. Rumia then just charged her left hand and punched Youmu straight to her chest. Youmu was sent flying backwards until she hit one of the trees of the garden. She was left gasping for air after she fell to the ground.

"Youmu," Marisa yelled before charging at Rumia. The smoke had finally cleared. Rumia just turned towards Marisa as she ran towards her. Rumia then charged her blade again and unleashed another beam at Marisa. Marisa however was expecting this and dodged it easily. She then flew past Rumia while unleashing a barrage of bullets at her and leaving behind few alchemical bombs she was always carrying around. Marisa landed and turned around immediately to look if she had done any damage. The smoke cleared and the first thing Marisa saw was Rumia charging at her with her blade aimed at Marisa's face. Marisa yelped and tried to cover her face but before Rumia could reach her Flandre managed to get between the two, grabbed Rumia by her waist and slammed her back first to the ground. Rumia growled a bit as she kicked herself free from Flandre's grip and stood up. She tried to get her hands onto Marisa again by just running past Flandre but Flandre didn't let her. Rumia then tried to punch her way through but Flandre just caught Rumia's fist. Rumia then tried the same with her other arm but Flandre caught that too. The two were now locked in a position where neither of them could get out without leaving themselves open. Flandre was actually surprised by Rumia's physical strength. She had thought she could just catch Rumia's blows and then throw her into the ground but it turned out that Rumia had as much, if not more strength than Flandre.

"Marisa, I could use a little help here! She's stronger than she looks," Flandre growled as Rumia pushed her few meters backwards. Marisa was looking at the situation about ten meters away trying to figure out what she should do.

"Crap, crap, crap. This is bad. She destroyed my Hakkero, I don't have any safe way to attack her without putting myself on the line," Marisa thought to herself as she tried to come up with a way to push Rumia back. But then as she looked Rumia and Flandre wrestle she remembered something from that one night. That one attack that had made Rumia to lose her stance.

"I'm not defenceless after all...," Marisa thought to herself and gulped. She then looked at the two and realized that Flandre would be caught in her attack as well.

"Damn it all! I don't have any other way to attack her so she just has to bear it," Marisa thought to herself and pointed her hands at the two. She then started mumbling something and a spectral pentagram formed and started spinning in front of her palms. A sphere of light started forming in front of her palms as she charged her spell. Flandre and Rumia were completely oblivious to this until Rumia finally laid her eyes onto Marisa. Marisa could clearly see Rumia's eyes widen when she realized what spell Marisa was charging. Rumia then tried to back away from Flandre's grip but before she could Marisa just yelled at Flandre, "Don't let her move!" Flandre did as Marisa told her to and grabbed Rumia by her waist again to keep her put. After a few seconds Marisa's spell was fully loaded. She then closed her eyes. One heart beat felt like a whole minute as she remembered how much she had feared to use that spell. However she couldn't back away anymore. She then opened her eyes and yelled the magic words.

"DARK SPARK," Marisa yelled and unleashed her spell in all of its might. A roaring black beam left her palms obscuring everything within Marisa's vision to darkness so she couldn't tell what was happening at the receiving end of that spell. She remembered how she had feared to even think about this spell. But she also remembered how that same spell had been the only thing that had brought Rumia down although only just a notch. Marisa was keeping her spell up firing it at the same direction. She couldn't even see her own nose when looking straigth ahead. What made even more opressing to use that spell was that soon after firing it Marisa started hearing whispers and feeling arms and finger touching her. If this had been the event when she accidentally created the spell she would have freaked out but she wasn't afraid anymore.

"I CREATED YOU AND YOU WILL OBEY ME," Marisa yelled back at the whispers she heard and increased the power she poured into the spell. She kept the spell up for about half a minute until she finally started to get exhausted. She figured that even if she had hit Rumia with this she still wouldn't go down with just this one attack so Marisa would need to have some power left after using the spell. She then started ending her Dark Spark. She started decreasing the amount of power she poured into the spell until her vision returned and the spell wore off completely. In front of Marisa was a demolished road leading the the mansion and the garden surrounding it. The earth, stones and plants had all been scorched away. In the middle of the destruction she could see Flandre still clinging to Rumia. Both were still standing but as soon as she saw Flandre let go of Rumia both of them fell. Flandre fell to the scorched and ash covered ground while Rumia fell only to her knees. She then lifted her gaze from the ground while breathing heavily and glared at Marisa. She then pushed herself up from the ash, stood up and lifted herself into the air.

"She still has that much power left? Impossible...," Marisa muttered as she watched how Rumia rose above the earth and just glared at Marisa. It seemed that she had definitely taken a beating from Marisa's spell but all the bruises, wounds and scratched on her body were healing before Marisa's eyes. Rumia then lifted her right arm to her side and summoned her sword again. Marisa backed away a one step and gulped. This was the only thing she could do before Rumia started spinning and swinging her sword all around causing huge waves of fire to be launched all over the place. Marisa couldn't do anything else than just yelp and try to get cover as Rumia blasted everything near them. Marisa then finally found cover from behind a small garden building that was made out of stone and didn't brake so easily. Marisa sat behind her cover trying to think what she could do next. She didn't have enough energy to fire another Dark Spark so she had no idea what she could use to bring Rumia down. Marisa then peeked from behind her cover to see if Rumia would show any signs of stopping. Her eyes however were caught by a familiar figure standing up from the crater below Rumia. It was Flandre. She pushed herself up from the ground and to her knees before summoning a flaming blade to her hands. Marisa knew this weapon. It was Lävatein. She remembered it from the time when she had fought Flandre. She just looked how Flandre clinged to the flaming blade in her hands tightly making it burn more intensively. Then suddenly she pointed it upwards, let out a terrible scream and unleashed a pillar of flame towards Rumia who was howering above her. The pillar of flame enveloped Rumia completely which in the end made Rumia stop launching the waves of fire. Marisa couldn't see what was happening inside the inferno but when Flandre finally lowered her blade back to the ground she could saw Rumia dropping to the ground from the middle of the blazing pillar. Marisa stood up from her cover to take a better look at the situation. Once she saw Rumia on the ground on all fours she decided that now would be the correct time to strike. She ran at Rumia readying her palms to blast her good. Rumia however lifted her gaze from the ground once again and just before Marisa could reach her she launched herself up from the ground and straight to the air accompanied by a massive one final blast of fire. Marisa had to cover her face and she fell to her back as the shockwave hit her. However she was quick to recover and as soon as she stood up she was planning to blast Rumia but when she stood up and looked around herself she couldn't see her anywhere anymore.

"She got away... Gods damn it," Marisa yelled in rage and kicked a pebble on the ground.

"I'm fine... *cough thanks for asking," Flandre groaned with annoyed tone and look on her face as she stood up from the ground painstakingly slowly.

"I had hoped to end her right here and now but she got away again," Marisa bridled in frustration and clenched her teeth together.

"What is wrong with you? If it wasn't for her fleeing we would most likely be dead. Don't you at least feel slightest worry for the people around you?" Flandre groaned after she finally got up from the ground. Marisa then just glared at Flandre but she couldn't respond because she noticed a strange orange glow reflecting from Flandre and from everything around them. She then turned around to see what was making the glow. When she turned around the only thing they saw was the Scarlet Devil Mansion on fire. Rumia's waves of fire had hit it and even if the outside of the mansion was mostly stone there were still spots that were made of wood and caught fire easily.

"Oh no... They're still in there," Flandre uttered after seeing her home burning.

"Quickly, take Youmu to the garden building to safety," Flandre yelled and started running towards her burning home. The fire within the mansion seemed to be spreading rapidly. At first Marisa was shocked by what she saw but she soon snapped out from it and ran up to the spot where Youmu had flown after Rumia's hit. She didn't need to look for Youmu for very long. She found her leaning against the very same tree she had hit while still holding her chest and gasping for air. Marisa didn't bother to ask if she was badly wounded or what because she could see it herself pretty well.

"This might sting a little," Marisa uttered and squatted down to pick Youmu up. Youmu groaned a bit after Marisa picked her up from the ground and started carrying her to the garden building. After reaching the building she put Youmu down against one of the pillars.

"Just stay here. We'll come back after all this has been settled," Marisa said and started running towards the mansion where Flandre had headed. But before she could do or say anything else she saw some people approaching them from the sky. Marisa stopped and waited to see who were approaching the mansion. After a moment she realized that it was Reimu, Yukari, Kasen, Okina, Yuugi, Suika, Alice, Ran and one other Oni who she didn't recognize.

"What are they doing here?" Marisa thought to herself as she watched how they approached the scene. It appeared that they were as shocked about the fact that the Scarlet Devil Mansion was burning as Marisa was. Marisa then waved her hand at them to get their attention.

"Marisa, what the hell is going on over here!?" Reimu yelled while flying towards her. They had seen the mansion burning from far away and had decided to take a look at what was happening especially after they had noticed that Flandre and Sakuya were missing.

"I'll explain on the way! Quickly, there's still people in the mansion," Marisa yelled and signed them to follow while she herself started running towards the main door of the mansion. Meanwhile Flandre had reached the door already and stormed inside. She really didn't care if she was running into a burning mansion or what. Only thing she wanted was to get everyone out in time. As soon as she pulled the door open and the oxygen rich air gushed into the mansion Flandre was almost thrown off her feet by the blast off fire that was resulted by her opening the door and letting the oxygen flow in.

"Jesus! Is anybody there!?" Flandre yelled after she had recovered from the blast of fire. She rushed in while covering her eyes and face as well as she could.

"I'm right here! *cough *cough," Flandre then heard Koakuma yelling back at her from the back of the vestibule.

"What are you still doing here!? The whole place is burning! We have to get everyone out of here," Flandre yelled while dodging the falling and burning pieces of wood.

"I can't! The others haven't returned from the library yet," Koakuma responded and caughed again. Flandre then rushed to Koakuma and tried to run past her into the library.

"Where do you think you're going? You can't go in there. The fire has absorbed the magical energy of the books there! The place is more dangerous than a minefield," Koakuma yelled and stepped between the door and Flandre.

"I have to," Flandre retorted although the heat of that hellish vestibule was starting to become unbearable.

"That's an absolute no! We just have to wait until they return," Koakuma insisted with strict tone and look on her face. Flandre looked at Koakuma with frustrated look on her face but after realizing that Koakuma wouldn't let her through she gave up.

"*cough *cough By the way, what happened outside? What lit the place?" Koakuma then asked while trying to cover her face to prevent herself from breathing in smoke.

"We were attacked by Rumia. At one point she started to fire projectiles at random and some hit the mansion," Flandres responded while constantly looking around herself to see if anyone would appear from within the mansion.

"Rumia? What does she have to do with anything?" Koakuma asked with confused look on her face.

"Beats me. She however wasn't like we had been used to see her. She was much more mature looking and possessed more power than I could ever imagine. If it wasn't for Marisa saying that it was Rumia I would never even have guessed who she actually was," Flandre explained hastily and coughed a little.

"Why in the world would she attack us?" Koakuma asked and looked behind herself to see if anyone was coming.

"No idea but it seemed that she was after Marisa, not us," Flandre responded with impatient look on her face. It was clear that she didn't want to just stand there doing nothing. She wanted to get past Koakuma to get the others out but she knew that Koakuma wouldn't let her. Flandre was already considering to force herself through when the door behind Koakuma suddenly slammed open. Flandre and Koakuma jumped back to see who were returning. It was Remilia and Meiling.

"Everyone get out," Remilia yelled and coughed quite much while running past Koakuma and Flandre. She was followed by Meiling. Koakuma and Flandre just looked how the two ran out and decided to follow them. They all ran out coughing uncontrollably and when they finally got out they were met by Marisa and the rest of the people who had gone to the Moriya shrine.

"By the gods. What happened here?" Reimu exclaimed when she saw Remilia, Meiling, Flandre and Koakuma rushing out from the mansion.

"It was *cough Patchouli *cough something went into her and *cough she started attacking everyone on sight," Meiling explained while breathing heavily. Reimu then just looked at Yukari who gave her a slight nod.

"Where is she now?" Yukari then asked with strict look on her face.

"We tried to calm her down but she attacked us. *cough We fought her but when the place caught on fire Patchouli fled through the skylight. That's when me and Remilia decided to back off," Meiling continued when she had finally caught her breath again.

"Doesn't this seem a little odd?" Reimu then asked from Yukari.

"Yes, there's no question about it. The two are related," Yukari said with thoughtful look on her face.

"What? What are related?" Flandre then asked with confused look on her face.

"Sanae and Patchouli. These cannot be separate incidents. Both of them started attacking everyone on sight before running off. When we visited Moriya shrine Sanae had already ran off. Kanako told us that Sanae was completely out of hand and she couldn't stop her. And that brings into mind, where did you and Sakuya disappear," Yukari then asked after explaining what they had seen at the Moriya shrine.

"Sakuya... Wait, where Sakuya?" Flandre then exclaimed after realizing that Sakuya hadn't come out from the mansion with Remilia and Meiling.

"I- I thought she had already come out. When we entered the library with Sakuya Remilia joined us soon after. I saw her whispering something to Sakuya's ear and after that I haven't seen her. I thought she had already retreated from the mansion," Meiling said and looked at the others with confused look on her face.

"Remilia?" Flandre then asked and looked at Remilia who was just staring at the burning mansion with dead serious look on her face.

"Remilia, where is Sakuya!?" Flandre then yelled but Remilia didn't respond. She just stood there and just stared at the mansion.

"You left her there!? You left your own servant there!? And... Flan... She's in there too! Your own sister is in there! We have to get them out," Flandre then yelled while looking at the expressionless Remilia.

"We can't go back in there. The place is unbearable not to mention the fire has absorbed the magical energy of the library. Going in there means a certain death," Meiling responded and tried to convince Flandre to stay put but she could tell by looking at Flandre's eyes that she was going to stay idle as there were still people in the mansion.

"Fine, if you don't help me then I'll go in there alone," Flandre said and charged towards the mansion.

"Flandre, stop," Koakuma yelled after her but there was no response. She then turned around and looked at Remilia.

"Do something, she's your own sister," Koakuma yelled but was met with a cold glare from Remilia.

"She is not my sister nor will she ever be," Remilia simply growled and showed no intention to stop Flandre from charging into the mansion. Koakuma then looked at the others but no one was willing to go after her. They all just stood there and looked at Flandre who charged into the mansion with a bit shocked looks on their faces.

Inside the mansion the first thing Flandre did was thinking where in the world Remilia order Sakuya to go. The whole place was on fire and there shouldn't be anywhere she could hide. Flandre then decided to just charge further into the mansion in hopes of finding even a single trace of Sakuya. She charged through a flaming door by blasting it to pieces. She really didn't want to get in contact with the fire.

"Sakuya where are you!?" Flandre yelled from the bottom of her lungs but the roaring of the blazing inferno into which the mansion had turned covered all other sounds so even if Sakuya had heard Flandre and responded Flandre wouldn't have had even the slightest change of hearing her. She kept diving deeper and deeper into the flaming depths of the mansion. She charged through corridors and halls but all of them were empty. The fairy maids had evacuated as soon as the fire started spreading. Fairies were covards by nature and that was really handy in a situations like these.

"If only Sakuya had a self-protection instinct. She's just too loyal to her own good," Flandre bridled as she flew deeper and deepr into the fiery mansion. She the arrived to the main hall of the mansion which was in its heart. From there you could see corridors spreading from the floor levels and balconies into the every corner of the mansion. But now all of it was burning to cinders. The lofts, the floor, the ceiling with the skylight all of it was burning. Flandre had to fly constantly to keep herself away from the flames.

"SAKUYA! WHERE ARE YOU!?" Flandre yelled again from the bottom of her lungs but ended up filling her lungs with the hot air after yelling which only made her to cough more uncontrollably.

"Damn, where has she gone?" Flandre thought to herself after she had been able to stop coughing. But it was then when she heard something. Not a sound a human or youkai would make but a sound of organ. Flandre knew that they had organ but hearing it being played at the time like this was almost haunting.

"That's gotta be it. I don't know why Sakuya is there playing an instrument but at least I know where to find her," Flandre thought to herself and charged to the direction where the sound had come from. Flandre flew to the far end of the main hall and took the corridor she knew would take her to the room where the organ had been placed. The heat was getting worse and worse as she delved deeper and deeper but as she flew the sound of the organ got louder and louder until she finally reached the far end of the corridor and a door behind which she knew would open a new hall where the organ was. She landed, ran up to the door and kicked it open. The heat gushed onto her face when she entered the blazing hall. She looked around herself. There was a wide staircase leading to an upper level of the hall where the organ was. It was however blocked by burning beams that had fallen from the ceiling. Flandre was quick to take flight so she could get to whoever was playing the organ. She flew across the burning obstacle and landed onto the upper level. There she finally saw the organ and the person playing it. It was Sakuya. She was playing it like she didn't even know that the mansion was burning to cinder around her.

"Sakuya! What the hell are you still doing here!? You need to get out at this instant," Flandre yelled at Sakuya who then looked back at her with surprised look on her face but didn't stop her playing.

"Flandre? Is that you? What are you doing here? You should get out while you still can," Sakuya simply responded while looking at Flandre.

"What are you talking about!? You have to get out too! I still need to get to Flan! I can withstand the heat but you need to get out of here," Flandre kept yelling and stepped closer to Sakuya.

"No, it was mistress' wish that I would stay here and play. She said that she would tell me when to stop," Sakuya said and turned her head away from Flandre and back to the organ.

"Are you deaf and blind!? She is not coming back!? The whole place is burning to the ground! You'll turn into ash before this is all over," Flandre insisted and tried to pull Sakuya off from the chair but Sakuya resisted by pulling out one of her knives.

"I respect your concern for me but if my mistress orders me to stay here I will respect her order. No matter if it kills me or not," Sakuya retorted after Flandre had backed away a little.

"Don't you have any self protection in you!? You would let yourself die and for what!? Because someone told you to do so!?" Flandre almost screamed with desperate look on her face.

"I admit that I do not understand the reasons behind this but my loyalty to my mistress is adamant. What ever is her wish is also my wish," Sakuya said with dead serious look on her face and continued her playing.

"You will die...," Flandre simply uttered with sad look on her face while looking at Sakuya.

"I have accepted that fact already. Go now. If you are planning to get Flan out of here too you should hurry already," Sakuya said without even looking at Flandre. Flandre was sad and frustrated at the same time. On the other hand she wanted to drag Sakuya out by force but she also knew that she would resist it. She just respected Remilia too much. Flandre was just about to leave Sakuya behind when her eyes caught something dangling from Sakuya's pocket. It was Sakuya's watch. Flandre quickly dashed closer to Sakuya, snatched it and backed off. It was like Sakuya didn't even notice. Flandre then looked at the watch. It was identical to the one she had broken and to the one Koishi had given her.

"This might end up badly for me but if this gets you to change your mind then so be it," Flandre thought to herself, truned around and took flight. She flew out from the hall and into the corridors that led to the basement. That's where she had heard Flan was. She flew through the blazing corridors decending lower and lower to reach the basement. The whole time she was trying to get the watch she had snatched from Sakuya to open but the shutter mechanism was tighter than vault. Even though she tried to wrench it open the lid wouldn't budge. She was starting to reach the staircase that lead to the basement and she still hadn't gotten the watch to open. She then decided to put it back into her pocket and try agains as soon as she had gotten Flan out from mansion. She dashed into the staircase that lead to the basement. It was mainly made from stone except for the stairs which made it so that only the floor was on fire. It was also a lot more cooler because the heat was rising up and the basement was deep underground. As Flandre progresse further down she could clearly feel the air getting much more bearable. No wonder why Flan could stay here for such a long time. She then finally reached the bottom layer of the basement. It too, like the rest of the mansion was blazing but not even nearly as intensively as the rest of the mansion. There were flamable parts in the basement hall but it was mostly made out of stone.

"Flan, are you here!?" Flandre yelled and tried to look around herself to see if her doppelganger was anywhere. Finally her eyes were caught by the open door that led to the room where she and Flan had been kept for hundreds of years. She ran across the hall held up by the marble pillars while dodging the fire. On her way to the open door she accidentally tripped and fell to her stomach. She could feel and hear that something made of metal had fallen to the ground as well. She then pushed herself up to take a look what it was. It was the watch. It had dropped from her pocked and dropped onto the floor and it seemed that the shutter mechanism had been broken in the process.

"Finally," Flandre uttered in relief as she took the watch from the floor and opened it.

"I really hope that this works," Flandre thought to herself as she opened the watch and looked at it. It was idential to the one she had.

"If this worked then opening this should be enough. But I still cannot leave this just lying around," Flandre thought and then smashed the watch to one of the marble pillars. She then pulled her hand back and looked at the watch. It was completely destroyed. No one would use it anymore.

"Come on Sakuya, save yourself," Flandre uttered before she dropped the remains of the watch from her hand and ran up to the door that led to the room where she and Flan had been a prisoner. The door was open so it seemed likely that Flan could be there. In the end it didn't seem that the fire had spread there.

"Flan!?" Flandre yelled upon entering the room and looking around herself. The burning hall behind her was lighting the place up enough so she could see the bed in the middle of the room and the bodies and skeletons lying all around it. Then she finally saw her. Flan was sitting on the floor slightly to the right from the bed. She didn't seem to care about the fire outside. She just sat there as though waiting.

"Flan, come, we need to get out of here! NOW," Flandre yelled and tried to sign Flan to follow her but she just stayed there and stared at Flandre.

"You have no need to worry. All will be good soon," Flan simply responded and stared at Flandre while hugging her knees.

"What are you talking about, COME ON! We will burn to a crisp if we don't leave," Flandre yelled and walked up to Flan to pull her with her.

"Why are you so afraid? Open your eyes and see. All will be well. Just stay here and join me," Flan uttered and stared into Flandre eyes. Flandre just stared back at her.

"The four hundred and ninety fife years were not enough. All will be fixed soon. Just stay and join me," Flan said while staring at Flandre. Flan the strecthed her arm towards Flandre to touch her but Flandre backed away.

"You're insane...," Flandre simply uttered.

"Aren't we all?" Flan simply uttered with expressionless look on her face. Flandre then turned around and looked at the burning hall through the open door.

"Come on already, we're running out of time," Flandre then yelled and was just about to run to the doors when she felt Flan grabbing her arm.

"We have all the time in this world and in the next. Stay, all will be well," Flan uttered while staring Flandre into her eyes but Flandre just took a quick glimpse at her doppelganger before pulling her arm free.

"I'm sorry," Flandre said, turned around and ran out from the room. Flan just wouldn't listen to her so she had to leave to at least save herself. If it wasn't too late already. She just hoped that at least Sakuya had made it out in time.

Outside the mansion Reimu, Marisa and the rest were keeping their fingers crossed and hoped that Flandre would get out in time. And that she would have Flan and Sakuya with her. The heat around the mansion had become so unbearable that they had had to back away to the garden building where Marisa had left Youmu earlier. They were all watching the mansion as it had started to burn more and more intensively going so far that the flames gushing out the windows turned blue and had melted the window covers made of iron.

"Sh- she isn't going to make it, is she?" Alice asked while looking at the blazing inferno in front of them.

"What are you talking about!? Of course she will," Meiling yelled back at her but Alice could clearly tell that even Meiling wasn't so sure about what she had just said.

"My only hope is that she will get out before the whole library goes up in flames. That much magical power might be catastrophic if it all ends up in fire. If it comes to that then there's no way she can survive," Koakuma uttered with stressed tone and look on her face.

"Look at that," Reimu suddenly yelled when she saw a pillar of pure white fire gushing out from one of the windows. And then another, and the another.

"Oh no...," Koakuma simply uttered.

"Everyone get back," She then commanded. Everyone just looked at Koakuma with a bit confused looks on their faces but seeing how dead serious Koakuma was they decided to listen to her and back away. Meiling picked Youmu up and they all retreated to the gates of the mansion. They were just in time because when they turned around to take a look at the mansion it was already almost completely enveloped in the white flames.

"She's... she's not gonna make it...," Reimu uttered with terrified look on her face as the burning mansion lit its surroundings with blindingly bright white light until they heard a deafening bang and felt unimaginably powerful and hot shockwave knocking them back several meters. Reimu and Youmu could just cover their faces in hopes of preventing themselves from getting serious burns from the blast. The rest of them, even if they were youkia, were also knocked back by the blast. The burst of fire gushed over them and they could hear how it tore down pieces of the wall that surrounded the mansion. When the shockwave had finally passed they found themselves laying from the road outside the walls. They had been sent flying straight through the gates. Luckily they hadn't hit the wall or there might have been even more damage than the shockwave had already dealt.

"What happened?" Marisa groaned as she started recovering from the ground. She pushed herself up only to see Koakuma and Meiling staring blankly to the direction where the explosion and the shockwave had come from.

"What hap... pened?" Marisa started but as soon as she laid her eyes onto the spot where the mansion had been her jaw dropped.

"No...," Koakuma simply uttered as they looked at the crater that was left of the mansion. All of the garden that remained was burning and the crater in the middle of it all was still glowing with heat. Molten stone was flowing on its slopes. Nothing remained of the mansion or of its immediate surroundings. The heat and explosion had burned everything to ash and even further so that not even ash remained. They all just stood there unable to do anything else than just stare at the devastation. It was eerily quiet.

 **Author's side note**

And so ends the second part of the Epoch of Ephemeral Incandescence. Considering that this episode depicts only the events of one single day it is baffling to see that this is the longest single piece I've written so far. But that said it is starting to become more and more obvious to me that this wont be just a trilogy and instead, if I don't write the next episode to be one colossal episode, there will be more than three parts. But I'm positive that you'll get the next part soon since I've been on fire (no pun intended) while writing this. Inspiration is just flowing in and I'm excited to get to write more. Also, this time the "Author's last word" that I always include at the end of my stories will be included in the epilogue once it comes out, not in the final episode like it normally has. That's because I want the whole story to be out before I talk about few important things. But that wont be relevant in a long time. So, who is truly behind this all? I wonder if people have been catching up with the hints I've left because anything is rarely as simple as it seems. Or have I been misleading you from the start?


End file.
